Valor Traditional Academy was founded in 1997 by the Mattingly Education Center. The Education Center’s Board of Directors believed that many students may not have the opportunity to reach their full potential in a large classroom. They wanted to create a different type of school, one that taught Christian and secular curriculum emphasizing traditional values and ideas in a much smaller environment. In smaller classes, students would get more individual attention from the teachers and many of the social challenges that face students in a larger school would not be present in a small, family-like setting.