Teachers and students in all four Demopolis schools were surprised this week when the “prize patrol” showed up in their classrooms.

The patrol, made up of Demopolis City Schools Foundation executive director Amanda Barnes and Foundation board members, went around Monday and Tuesday telling teachers they received classroom grants this year.

In all, the Foundation awarded more than $50,000 this fall. The money will fund everything from iPads to library books, sheet music to wireless headphones.

“This is the best day of the year for the Foundation. We get to see all of the hard work from the past year rewarded when the students and teachers show so much enthusiasm for these projects,” said Jenn Tate, a board member and executive director of the Demopolis Area Chamber of Commerce.

Teachers were encouraged at the beginning of the year to apply for the grants. The Foundation received 39 requests for more than $153,000.

A seven-member grants committee reviewed each application and after much discussion, made recommendations to the full board.

“These classroom grants are one of the things that makes the Demopolis school system so successful,” Barnes said. “The funds to support the Foundation are raised through our year-round membership campaign as well as fundraisers we hold throughout the year. For a community of our size to be able to put an extra $50,000 of materials into the classrooms each year shows just how much we all believe in the importance of quality public education.”

This year, Demopolis Middle School received $22,694 in grants, Demopolis High School received $8,498, Westside Elementary received $9,943, and US Jones Elementary received $9,177.

The Demopolis City Schools Foundation is an independent nonprofit established in 1993 to encourage private charitable support of the Demopolis public school system. Governed by a 32-member Board of Directors, the Foundation has provided more than $950,000 in classroom grants since its inception.

2013 grants were awarded to the following teachers:

Demopolis High School

•Leslie Gibbs, $687 for books and audio copies of “Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” for use in the 11th grade English

•Cynthia Whitlock, $2,000 for ebooks at the high school library

•Heather Kennedy, $948 for a digital piano and choral sheet music to support the choral program

•Kim Browder, $1,320 for document based activities for the high school history department

•Stacy Cyd Boland, $4,230 for a set of 30 graphing calculators for use in the Geometry classroom

Demopolis Middle School

•Ashley M. Brock, $645 for robotic equipment in the 7th and 8th grade robotics class

•Coty Geohagan, $7,319 for 30 Google Nexus tablets to be used in the middle school language arts program

•Deborah McAfee, $1,257 for an interactive response system to connect to the Smartboard

•Ginger Godwin, $2,000 for ebooks at the middle school library

•Lisa McHugh, $6,412 for a SMART table for the 6-12th grade special education classroom

•Mesha Smith, $359 for a set of classroom atlases for use in the 6th grade social science classroom

•Susan Browder, $4,700 for 25 Kindle Fires for use in the 6th grade math and science classrooms

US Jones Elementary School

•Amy Ramer, $329 for a rhythm band set for the 4th grade

•Beth Lindsay, $908 for four sets of classroom novels by Andrew Clements for the 4th grade

•Emily Windham, $3,500 for hardback books and ebooks at the US Jones library

•Jennifer Bedsole, $2,480 for seven iPad minis for use in two 4th grade classrooms

•Julie Harrison, $1,389 for four iPad minis for use in the 3rd grade

•Laura P. Holley, $569 for counseling curriculum at US Jones

Westside Elementary School

•Addy Card, $920 for five Kindle Fires for use in the 2nd grade

•Annette E. Gwin, $2,480 for seven iPad minis for use in the 2nd grade

•Eva Aultman, $799 for two wireless listening stations in the 2nd grade

•Lori Giles, $1,118 for hardback books at the Westside library

•Nan Dollar, $2,133 for six iPad minis for use in the 1st grade

•Tracy Stewart, $2,491 for six iPad minis for use in the 2nd grade