SARATOGA SPRINGS — Just a few months after opening the Discovery Space Center I at the Stonegate Center for the Arts in Pleasant Grove, Casey Voeks has announced he is opening another center on the west side of Utah Valley.

The simulator rooms are scheduled for completion by Aug. 15 before the 2013-14 school year begins for students in Saratoga Springs at Lakeview Academy.

“We are ready to go. We are starting right now,” Director Richard Veasey said.

While Voeks lacks a title for his new position at Lakeview Academy, Veasey said he thinks Captain Voeks will do.

“About a year ago I started meeting with Casey Voeks and we were talking about the possibility about having a simulator here on our campus,” Veasey said.

The mission of Lakeview Academy is to help kids develop a love for learning and help them become more capable and confident and contributing members in their community.

“What a perfect fit to have this simulator experience for them to develop those skills,” Veasey said. “We are also arts, technology and science based. What a wonderful fit to bring these simulators to our school and let these kids experience the curriculum hands on. It really allows them more depth of learning.”

Hired by the charter school as a full time teacher, Voeks will work and coordinate with the faculty to include curriculum with each flight mission based on student needs. About 950 students will attend the school next August and each child should have the opportunity to go on six missions during the year.

“It’s exciting because I think it’s innovative and it will offer the kids a different opportunity that they would not normally get in a regular school. Charter schools have that ability to be innovative and so it’s exciting to be one of the first schools to have that in place,” said Board of Directors President Julie Anderegg.

She said her children who are students at the academy and have attended the Christa McAuliffe Space Center operated by the Alpine School District are thrilled to know they will be getting their own center.

Their school is not the only school in Utah County interested in adopting the Discovery Space Center program, according to Voeks.

“We have many that are looking into it and my goal is to see this concept in hundreds of schools in the future. It’s an incredible concept and, you know, it pays for itself through schools, it’s a self sustainable program, but more important than that it is a program that inspires kids to learn,” Voeks said.

He said there is a school in south Utah County interested in the concept and several more in Salt Lake County.

“The program sells itself. Mr. Veasey had contacted me persistently after I had gone and done my own thing at Stonegate.” he said.

The Stonegate center will continue to operate privately and is open to the public for missions. BJ Warner is the new director for the Pleasant Grove operation.

“It’s going really well. We are operating in the black,” Voeks said.

They were operating in the black the first month the Discovery Space Center I opened.

“Our biggest challenge has been keeping up with staff training,” Voeks said.