For the first time since its grants program began, the Demopolis City Schools Foundation awarded funding to every application submitted on time.

That all teachers requesting aid were awarded funding was good news but that the total number of applicants was down from 2008 was somewhat of a surprise to Demopolis City School Foundation Director Jan McDonald.

“We’re still scratching our heads,” she said.

In all, the Foundation Grants Committee reviewed 28 applications requesting $58,605.64, significantly lower than the $162,010.12 requested by the 38 applicants last year.

Teachers at all four of the Demopolis school campuses received a total of $56,500 Thursday when the Prize Patrol visited teachers in their classrooms to announce the grants.

While Thursday’s awards were certainly good news to the foundation, a slowdown in the economy could pose future troubles.

“We’ve got to be creative and proactive,” McDonald said. “When the economy slows down, donations slow down with it. But we’re committed to having the available funding next year with what we hope is an increase in applications.”

McDonald said there were no plans to increase the number of fundraisers for the Foundation, opting to make the most out of their three annual events.

“We’ve got the turkey sale, the pancake dinner this spring and School Fest in May,” she said. “We’re going to maximize those as best we can.”

Members of the Grants Committee are John Lehning, chairman; Dr. Wayne Vickers, superintendent of education; Allene Jones, Demopolis High School; Kim Easley-Bell, Demopolis Middle School; Amy Bozeman, U.S. Jones Elementary, and Debbie Butler, Westside Elementary.

All but two applicants received full funding this year.

Demopolis High received $22,883.44; Demopolis Middle, $8,503.35; U.S. Jones Elementary, $5,522.07 and Westside Elementary, $19,591.14.

Those receiving grants last week were:

Demopolis High School

Annie Robertson, “We Need Mo – ELMO That Is,” $1,350, for an Elmo Visual Presenter and LCD projector.

Kenneth Webb, “ELMO — Not Just any Toy,” partially funded for $2,350, for five Elmo presenters.

Kenneth Webb, “Tigers! Let’s See!”, $470, for an overhead graphic calculator

Charles Jones Jr., “Gateway to Better Presentations,” $548, for an InFocus projector.

William Martin Jr., “Multimedia ‘Power’ Lab,” $3,893.69, to overhaul the main computer lab.

Regina Hill, “Realityworks Baby Think It Over,” $3,822.67, for five Baby Think It Over packets and supplies.

Cynthia Whitlock “Books for Boys: Reaching the Reluctant Male Reader,” $2,520.64, for 185 books to appeal to reluctant young male readers.

Leslie Gibbs, “ELMO Teaches Authentic Writing,” partially funded, $3,234.33, for three Elmo presenters and carts

Leslie Gibbs, “Tools for In-depth Analysis of Literature, Part VII,” $399.51, for classroom sets of novels.

Kim Browder, “Surviving the Holocaust,” $1,324.60, for a graphic novel series.

Isaac Espy Jr., “Dual Enrollment Scholarships,” $2,970, to provide scholarships to Alabama Southern Community College.

Demopolis Middle School

Linda Edmonds, project leader, “What Do Shoes, Gloves and Chromosomes Have in Common?” $263, for a Karyotyping with Magnetic Chromosomes 8-Station Kit.

Ola Ross and Linda Edmonds, “Science ‘K’nex’,” $325, for a kit to construct DNA and RNA molecules.

Linda Edmonds, project leader, “Do You See What I See? Part II,” $2,189, for two microvideo cameras.

Meggin Mayben, “Chalk It Up?”, $1,620, for an interactive whiteboard.

Meggin Mayben, “I’m Late, I’m Late, It’s Time for an ActiveSlate!”, $442, for a Promethean ActivSlate to use in conjunction with the whiteboard.

Meggin Mayben, “Captivating Classrooms with Current Events,” $649.35, for Weekly Reader Current Events subscriptions.

Meggin Mayben, “Express Yourself with Activexpressions!”, $3,015, for a Promethan Activexpression.

U.S. Jones Elementary

Kristi Stokes, “Technology Abound,” $1,716.98, for an electronic whiteboard and presenter.

Stephanie Polk, “ELMO in Education,” $1,964, for three Elmo presenters.

Tammy Causey, project leader, “A Classroom on the Go,” $863, for a mobile bulletin board with cork and projection white board capabilities.

Rosemary Luckie, “A Better View: Doc Cam and Cart,” $978.09, for an Elmo Doc Cam and cart.

Westside Elementary

Connie Brown and Tony Pittman, “WES Gets Physically Fit for the Future,” $9,607, to help purchase a play system for the playground.

Tracy Stewart, “My Laptop and ME,” $1,000, for a laptop computer.

Tracy Stewart, “Mysteries, Inc.,” $789, for a collection of book sets and CDs.

Tracy Stewart, “The Race for the White House 2008,” $300, for a voting process kit.

Michele Tangle and Dee Roark, “Stories Around Town,” $7,446, for materials to store and listen to books and their accompanying tapes/CDs.

Katie Poole, “First Grade Lagniappe,” $449.14, first grade supplies.