SPANISH FORT, Ala. — The Spanish Fort Educational Enrichment Foundation will distribute $30,000 during the next week in supplemental grant funding to teachers and students across the feeder pattern.

“To raise $30,000 in this economic time is just phenomenal, and we are so fortunate to be able to address some needs that might easily get overlooked in the middle of a funding crisis,” said SFEEF Executive Director Sandra Bostrom.

The funds, awarded each spring through the foundation’s mini-grant program, are intended to augment existing programs and even introduce new programs not typically funded by the Baldwin County Board of Education’s traditional funding mechanisms. All mini-grant funding must be spent no later than May 31.

Bostrom said she isn’t certain how many applications were submitted in the program’s fifth year from the four participating schools, but the grants requested a total of $61,000. In 2010, the program awarded via 19 grants $25,000 of the $40,000 requested.

An independent panel of judges with advanced educational and business backgrounds pore over the entries, she said, scoring applicants on educational enrichment value as well as the number of students projected to benefit from the programs among other criteria.

Although the winners have already been selected, Bostrom said the testing being conducted this week and the upcoming Mardi Gras holiday has made it difficult to arrange adequate notification and recognition for the winners, so foundation members will keep their secrets just a little longer.

In 2010, SFEEF awarded nine grants totaling nearly $12,000 to Spanish Fort High School applicants; three grants totaling nearly $4,000 to Spanish Fort Middle School applicants; $1,500 to three Rockwell Elementary School applicants; and four grants totaling nearly $8,000 to Spanish Fort Elementary School applicants.

“All of these grants address areas of need for our school,” said SFES Principal Rebecca Comer. “We always want to do what is best for all our students, but none of these materials would have been purchased without the grants.”