BAY MINETTE — 68 Ventures has provided $10,000 for Pine Grove Elementary School's Project Success program, which encourages academic growth and good classroom behavior for general education students.

"We are beyond grateful to be on the receiving end of such a generous donation," said Pam Moorer, principal of Pine Grove Elementary.

Moorer explained that Project Success was put in place as an alternative to suspension from school to "help students grow academically." Students are pulled from their regular classes and placed in the Project Success classroom where they work on classroom behavior as well as their regular schoolwork.

"We just lead them to their genius while they're there (in the Project Success classroom), and they're able to come back to the classroom setting and do better than they did before," Moorer said.

Nathan Cox, 68 Ventures founder and chairman, visited the school on Sept. 23 to present the $10,000 for the program. He said 68 Ventures decided to fund this program upon recommendation from the Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE).

"As we got to learn about the program, it sounded like a perfect opportunity to give some attention to kids that definitely deserve it," Cox said.

Moorer said it has not yet been decided how the funds will be used as the school would like the input of the students and staff, but she said they will "make it count."

Cox said he hopes the funds go to anything that gets the students excited about school and "takes Pine Grove in another step in the right direction."

"I've firmly realized that the success of our school system dictates everything else as far as the quality of life goes," Cox said.

John Wilson, chief school financial officer for BCPS, said "68 Ventures has always been a great partner with Baldwin County School through site donations and contributions to schools and all kinds of awesome things that we definitely appreciate."

Interim Assistant Superintendent Becky Turner has worked a lot with Project Success and the six other schools that use the program. She said Pine Grove was the first school in Baldwin County to implement it, which has been going on for two years.

Turner said some of the main goals for Project Success include keeping kids in a classroom to reduce out of school suspensions, educating elementary students on social skills in a school setting and solving behavioral issues by teaching them proper classroom attitudes.

Superintendent Eddie Tyler attended Pine Grove on the day the check was presented. He shared his excitement about the funding and how the program has "succeeded – no pun intended" over time. Tyler addressed a group of students who also attended the presentation.

"With the leaps and gains you've made educationally, you have to be proud," Tyler said. "You have to be Baldwin Proud."

Tyler said he could see this program eventually being implemented at a county level. Moorer said she thinks the program is "going to grow, definitely." Cox said he thinks this program will help encourage students in future or long-term achievements.

"So much of it is just having higher expectations for the kids and not allowing them to set a low bar for themselves," he said.

"It's just believing in them," Moorer said.