Grant to help low-income children

Despite being surrounded by wealth, there are children on Hilton Head Island who live in poverty and are at risk of failing school.

The Boys & Girls Club and two schools on the island hope a new $200,000 grant will help provide academic and other help to about 140 low-income students.

"When we wrote the grant," according to Gretchen Keefner, principal of Hilton Head School for the Creative Arts, "we said, 'Although you think Hilton Head is this resort area, we have a high poverty index here that indicates kids need something that goes beyond the school day.'<2009>"

The S.C. Department of Education awarded the money for Project Reach, which will provide before- and after-school

tutoring, homework assistance, healthy behavior and character leadership programs, career counseling, athletic opportunities, technology training and other programs. Students from the School for the Creative Arts and Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School will attend the programs housed at the Boys & Girls Cl Hilton Head.

Project Reach starts Monday through a "21st century community learning center grant" that's available for four years, with similar funding following the program's first year.

"We know when kids are involved in extracurricular activities, they perform better, have better time management and learn to work as a team in things that interest them," Keefner said. "One of the things we want to do is expand some of those experiences and opportunities, and this grant will afford some resources to do that for the kids."

Keefner said she also hopes it improves the academic performance of minority students and those who come from low-income families -- two groups that typically score lower on state standardized tests.

Keefner said 56 percent of her students are minorities and the poverty rate at the school is

58 percent. At Hilton Head IB, 52 percent of the students are minorities and the poverty rate is 48 percent, Keefner said.

In working with the Boys & Girls Club, Keefner said, there was a high percentage of students at both elementary schools who already attended the club after school, but were not successful academically.

"So the belief was if we began to look at those students and put into place procedures for monitoring those kids to keep them accountable, if we could collaborate with communication and resources, we could improve achievement," she said.

Jill McAden, principal at Hilton Head IB, said the program also will promote healthy habits and good character. It will offer a walking club in the morning and allow children to play and learn soccer, golf and tennis. It also will provide character-building lessons, such as making children aware of bullying and its effects on others.

McAden said she was also excited that the program would provide literacy activities for the entire family.

The program offers parents of the students involved in Project Reach classes in English, reading and writing. The classes will be offered in the evenings for those who need it, while the students are at the club. That way, parents won't have to find child care to participate.

Joyce Wright, director of the Boys & Girls Club, said the program requires heavy parental involvement because "student success starts at home."

"They need to make sure their kids get a good night's rest, make sure they are at school on time and go to school every day, and they need to go over the homework with their kids," Wright said. "It's a short time between cooking and going to bed, but they need to identify what their kids learned that day."