I want to give a shout out to the GMHS cast and crew for their fabulous production of The Little Mermaid. They packed the GMHS auditorium on March 12, 13, 14 and 15. What talent we have in Granby! This musical highlighted our talented singers, dancers and set crew students and volunteers. As Director Erin Bakken stated, “This production has truly been a labor of love.”
This brings me to another fact that I would like to share with the citizens of Granby. Fine arts in the Granby School System needs your support. We have very professional and gifted fine arts educators, i.e., music, band and drama.
I want to bring your attention to the Drama Club at GMHS. The production team receives a small stipend; all other crew and set members are volunteers. The Drama Club productions receive no money for sets and costumes. To help with expenses, parents established the Fine Arts Booster Club that can be found on gmhsfinearts.com. However, the Fine Arts Boosters can’t do it all. For example, last spring only eight students attended the Halo Awards ceremony in Waterbury because there were no funds for a bus to take all drama students to support their GMHS nominees. Let’s not let this ever happen again. These students have demonstrated dedication to their work and merit acknowledgment for their efforts.
How can you support the fine arts programs in our schools? Please ask questions concerning how these programs are supported in the BOE 2026–27 budget. We need the proposed BOE budget to be more specific (line by line items) as to how monies are distributed to various student activities such as Fine Arts. I am not implying that the budget be increased to meet these needs, but I would like to see more fairness in the distribution of these monies. It’s your budget, so you should decide how it’s used.