By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

Health rooms at schools in the Shelby County School District will benefit from grant funding the SCS Education Foundation has secured for 2016.

The Education Foundation requested and received $34,200 from the Shelby County Community Health Foundation for this year’s health room provisions for 31 schools throughout the district.

“It helps supply our nurses’ stations in each school with basic supplies,” SCS Education Foundation Development and Community Relations Director Kendall Williams said of the funding. “It can be Band-Aids, gauze, ointment, EpiPens (and) defibrillators.”

The Community Health Foundation has served local public schools for 13 years by securing the grant funding necessary in purchasing supplies and equipment for schools’ health rooms, which rely on contributions from parents and the community to function.

Williams said a portion of the funding goes to the SCS Needy Children’s Fund, which helps provide various medical-related requests, such as eye and dental exams, to students who may not have access to them outside of school.

Another portion of the funding goes to assistant nurses’ needs at each school.

“We, as a district, decided to have all our employees certified to administer an EpiPen,” Williams said. “The system decided they wanted to do some funds toward more EpiPens for each school. Defibrillators have to be re-certified each year.”

Funding also fulfills other needs, such as stocking nurses’ stations at new schools in the district.

The Education Foundation applied for the grant funding in October and will present it at the next administrator’s meeting at the Shelby County Instructional Services Center in Alabaster on Jan. 28.

The following is a breakdown of funding allocations: Fifteen Shelby County elementary and intermediate schools at $1,200 for a total of $18,000; six Shelby County middle schools at $750 each for a total of $4,500; six Shelby County high schools at $500 for a total of $3,000; Vincent Middle High School at $1,000; New Direction (Shelby County Alternative School) at $500; College and Career Center at $500; Linda Nolen Learning Center at $1,200; System Nurses’ Needs List at $3,000; and SCS Needy Children’s Fund at $2,500.

The SCS Education Foundation was formed in 1992 as a non-profit organization separate from the Board of Education and an “advocate for quality public education in Shelby County to provide financial support for schools and to strengthen interactive partnerships between parents, communities, businesses and educators to ensure each student is offered maximum potential for achievement.”

The Education Foundation has secured more than $335,000 in funding through the Shelby County Community Health Foundation over the years, Williams said.

The Education Foundation has awarded more than $500,000 to teachers for classroom projects and equipment not otherwise funded through the school system budget.