Family style carnival planned for Granite Bay High School fundraiser

Granite Bay High School turns 30 years old this year. Over the past three decades, GBHS has not only earned coveted National Blue Ribbon and California Distinguished School status but has also established itself as a key centerpiece of the community. Now though, many educators and parents are deeply concerned that time has taken a dire toll on GBHS, and it's in great need of major upgrades. While state funding is limited, two longtime parents in the community are stepping up and making it their mission to fundraise and help achieve a future vision for the school. Their first big push will be a festive, family carnival-style event on Aug. 9. Laura Stannard and Margot Birch had children who graduated from GBHS, and while their kids are long gone from the campus, the pair are passionate about making the high school the best it can be as it begins its fourth decade in the community. "I don't have any kids there anymore, but I'm a teacher there and I care about my community," explained Stannard. Stannard, a Spanish teacher and longtime pivotal booster and school sports team advocate, said the signs of age are apparent even in her classroom, where not one of the 37 desks are in good condition. "One of the biggest things we want to do is revamp the whole library," explained Stannard. "Right now, we can't even sit all the staff in there when we do staff meetings because there's a wall in between half of it. It's also built for books, which is great, but people are using computers now and we don't have computer tables, we don't have outlets and charging stations. We also want to make the library more like a student union where people actually use it, to go in there and study." Other needs include a new grizzly bear mascot, which comes with a price tag of $7,000 (apparently, mascots are not cheap), and major upgrades to their sports venues. Stannard said GBHS sporting events just haven't had the same attendance since Covid. The hope is to change that and make the venues more modern and inviting. "The baseball scoreboard, you can't tell if there's an out, a ball, a strike; the basketball scoreboard in the gym, you don't know if it's 3 points or 8 points. So we want to do all digital scoreboards even in the football stadium, too," said Stannard. "... We could even stream graduation up there if everything were digital." The Aug. 9 event is called Grizz Fest. It will be held in the GBHS quad, gym and cafeteria between 9 a.m. and noon (held earlier to avoid the intense heat of August), and is intended to be a fun event for literally everyone. "I want this to be something that 2-year-olds will enjoy and 80-year-olds will enjoy," said Stannard. There will be dunk tanks, water slides, bounce houses, and every department in the high school is designing its own carnival game that will be in the gym; for instance, the English Department is making a human pinball game. There will also be breakfast and lunch food choices, including Chick-Fil-A, snow cones, cotton candy and more. Stannard has placed signs all around the community, hoping for a large turnout. They are also eagerly looking for sponsors to aid in the longer-term vision for the school. "Granite Bay … we live in a town, not a city, and I feel like everything that ties us to Granite Bay is the high school, whether you have someone you know go there, you're going to go there, you went there," said Stannard. "It's just something that the whole community should be proud of." Tickets to the Grizz Fest on Aug. 9 are $50 until Aug. 1, then the price increases to $75 and $100 at the door the day of the event. The tickets are considered a donation to the Granite Bay High School Modernization Event, so it's tax-deductible, said Stannard. The long-term fundraising goal is $1.8 million to achieve everything in the modernization project vision. Stannard said she knows it's a multi-year goal and she already has her eye on other major fundraising events. For now, the hope is the community will donate their dollars, celebrate the school's history and help build a bright future for a place that has become the heart of Granite Bay.