Hilton Head's needy kids need a place to go after this program is forced to move
"Ms. Judy" Blahut blows the whistle hanging around her neck and tells the few dozen children running around the tennis courts it's time to line up. It's 3:45 p.m. Monday — time to find out if all of the children hoping to attend the free after school program get to stay.
Blahut counts them as they form two crooked lines — one for kids in preschool through first grade, the "littles" — and one for kids in second through fifth grade.
Blahut counts 14 littles and 12 older kids. Twenty-six total. That means for today, she doesn't have to tell any of them to go home. The children grab the backpacks they tossed aside when they got off the bus and walk toward the learning centers.
Blahut is the program manager for the Neighborhood Outreach Connection center that has been operating out of the Cordillo Courts condominium complex since 2014. She previously was the head of school and a teacher at a Montessori school in Arkansas for 15 years. She's been working with the NOC since August 2017.
A September 2017 court order means the group can only serve a maximum of 30 kids out of two condo units — about half of what they used to serve — until May 15, when the center will have to close its doors.
The center has been searching for a new place, but time is running out if the program is to continue into the summer.
"It's going to bring irreparable harm to these kids, there's no question about it," said the program's founder Narendra Sharma. "These kids who come to the NOC program are kids who don't go to the Boys and Girls Club or the rec center because of lack of transportation or ... poverty. They can't pay the tuition."
The NOC is a nonprofit program operating in Beaufort County that aims to help at-risk youth. The program sets up shop in low income neighborhoods and serves the kids who live there by offering healthy snacks, play time and homework, math and reading help. It also offers health services, workforce development workshops and social events for the community. When those services are no longer needed, the group moves out, Sharma said.
NOC currently operates in neighborhoods on Hilton Head and in Bluffton and Beaufort. Sharma said the group has never encountered problems in the other neighborhoods like they have in Cordillo Courts.
According to court documents, in early 2016, several members of the condominium complex's board of directors determined the NOC's presence at Cordillo was "contrary to the board's desired uses." The board wanted to terminate NOC's educational centers in the community and "voted to penalize NOC for its ongoing use by assessing a monthly, punitive fine in the amount of $500 per unit, plus $25 per day per unit."
The NOC filed suit against the board and others to fight the board's attempt to end the NOC's operations at Cordillo Courts. The dispute went to mediation and was settled out of court in September 2017. That agreement said the group had to cease the Cordillo Courts operation on May 15, 2018.
"Our challenge is to find a home for these kids," Sharma said. "Right now we're knocking on doors, we're talking with church groups, art centers and others."
James Ackerman, the Cordillo Courts board president, said owners and board members have offered suggestions about where the NOC could move "since the beginning."
"People always mistake us as wanting to get rid of the NOC," Ackerman said. "The board isn't mad about the services. They're mad about the way they conduct business. It doesn't fit the business model of the complex."
"It's a good service, but it's in the wrong spot," Ackerman said.
The children who attend the NOC in Cordillo Courts are mostly first generation Americans, Blahut said. They were confused when they were initially told some would be asked to go home if there were more than 30 kids on a given day.
"They don't understand it, and they then lose trust," Blahut said.
Gerson Cal, a Guatemala native, is the neighborhood liaison for the NOC in Cordillo Courts. He started in September 2017. His role is connecting with the parents of the kids, which is easier for him because he speaks fluent Spanish.
"It took us several months to actually make that connection and make them trust us," he said.
The bad news about the number of kids who could attend each day was a setback to that trust.
A second setback came about two weeks ago.
Blahut sat the children down and explained that the center in their neighborhood was closing for good. A letter was also sent to parents in both English and Spanish.
There's plenty of evidence that suggests that what the NOC does helps the children improve in school, Sharma said. Their test scores go up, teachers send notes thanking the NOC for working with the kids, and the kids get excited to learn.
The children are also more involved in the community.
In December, the Cordillo Courts NOC children spoke during a public comment period of a Hilton Head Town Council meeting to ask the town not to sell the public tennis courts they play on each day. Ultimately, the town voted not to sell.
"Our biggest challenge and our biggest worry right now is finding a new place," Sharma said. "The children are going to wake up one day and realize they can't come here. ... That's why there's a sense of urgency."
The NOC's last after school program in Cordillo Courts will be May 10.
This story was originally published March 20, 2018 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Hilton Head's needy kids need a place to go after this program is forced to move."