Granville Families, Friends and Community,
The Granville PTO, the Community School Coordinator at Granville Schools and the School District are teaming up to bring something amazing to our schools: a daily, high-quality afterschool enrichment program right here at Mary J. Tanner School (MJT).
And we need our community's help to launch it.
Why Afterschool Matters
When kids have a safe, fun place to go after the school bell rings, everyone wins. Studies show that good afterschool programs help kids do better in class, miss fewer school days, improves behaviors and creates a sense of belonging and civic pride in their community.
Afterschool enrichment is transformative for both children and the local economy. According to the comprehensive America After 3PM national study:
Workforce Stabilization: 84% of working parents state that afterschool programs are vital to keeping their jobs or working consistent hours, and 85% report immense "peace of mind" knowing their children are safe.
Academic Excitement: 75% of parents agree afterschool programs make their children more excited about learning, directly driving up daily school attendance and improving behavioral outcomes.
The Opportunity Gap: High-income families currently spend 9 times more on out-of-school enrichment activities than low-income families. This program explicitly bridges that gap by providing equitable, high-quality enrichment after school.
(Check out more data on afterschool programming here. Opens to NYS Community Schools)
The Game Plan & Goal
The Target: A daily afterschool program at MJT starting in fall 2026.
The Benefit: It will be 100% free for up to 50 MJT students, helping working parents who need a safe, reliable place for their kids during the workday by providing afterschool enrichment activities that improves learning and school performance too. (We’ll start with 50 students and expand from there.)
The Impact: Afterschool programming is one of the key levers of student success and engagement in schools and a structural stabilizer for families balancing work and childrearing.
The Cost: We need to raise $50,000 to pilot this program. This money pays for professional staff, jobs for our high school students who will help out, and bus rides home for the kids. (Great news: The District already secured a grant to cover healthy snacks for the afterschool enrichment and is applying for a grant for this program as well in collaboration with the PTO.)
The Future: If this pilot is a success - it is well attended, makes a positive impact in school and helps families - the District will work to make this a part of the school budget starting in 2027-2028 school year.
Let’s Pool Our Resources!
What if we pooled our resources as a community and turned some of the amazing fundraising energy we have in Granville into one big goal that directly helps local working families?
By teaming up, we can build a strong, lasting program that keeps Granville kids safe, active, and learning.
The PTO, the District, and the school’s Community School Site Coordinator (CSSC) believe that by organizing and uniting our community’s fundraising infrastructure, we can sustainably fund local afterschool programs.
The PTO has established the Granville Afterschool Fund under the PTO’s official NYS non-profit status.
Instead of waiting 12 to 24 months for traditional, bureaucratic state grant cycles to complete, this pilot allows us to leverage local agility to begin this programming in the fall of 2026.
How You Can Help
Whether you can spare $6 as a family or a bit more as a local organization, every dollar counts towards building afterschool programming in Granville.
When a community organizes itself and its resources, great things are possible!
Here are different levels of pitching in.
Contribute at any level and become part of the Wall of Appreciation on the school website for the PTO Granville Afterschool Fund. The Wall of Appreciation will not be organized by level of contribution but by all contributors.
$6 (The Spark Level): Covers one day of afterschool enrichment for a student at MJT.
$30 (The Team Player Level): Covers one week of enrichment for a student.
$100 (The Innovator Level): Covers one month of enrichment for a student.
$1,000 (The Champion Level): Covers a full school year of programming for a student.
By launching this ourselves, we can start helping Granville families this coming school year.
Imagine 50 MJT students staying after school with caring, supportive staff each school day. They will receive a healthy snack and enjoy enrichment activities designed to help everyone succeed - Granville students, Granville families and Granville schools. Free to MJT community!
👉 READY TO CHIP IN?
CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE
The link above opens to the Granville NY PTO Venmo account.
Please note "Granville Afterschool" in Venmo comments, your email address and how you want to be identified on Wall of Appreciation. Thank you!
Prefer to write a check?
Mail it to or Drop off:
Granville PTO
c/o Granville CSD District Office, PTO Afterschool Fund
58 Quaker Street, Granville, NY 12832
Note: The District Offices is located at Granville Jr/Sr High, 58 Quaker Street, on the very left side of the front courtyard with a blue sign above the door that reads: District Offices
Thank you Granville!
Go Horde! 💙💛
Common Questions
1. The District just raised school taxes. Why is the PTO raising money for this?
Right now, after school programs are not part of the school budget. Usually, they are funded by local community efforts. If we can prove this pilot program works and helps our families, the District plans to work it into the official school budget for the 2027-2028 school year. Community contributions are the bridge to make that happen.
2. Where exactly does my money go?
Your donation goes directly into a dedicated bank account co-managed by the Granville PTO (a registered non-profit) and a school district office staff member. Every dollar goes straight to paying for MJT’s afterschool staff, student-assistant jobs, and busing. Any extra funds will be saved to help expand after school programs for Granville students in the future.
3. What happens if we don’t raise enough money?
If we need to start smaller, we’ll start smaller, but we will start an afterschool enrichment program at MJT in the fall of 2026.
Let’s Go Horde!
Questions to PTO or District about the Granville Afterschool: Please contact Karin Rozell, Community School Coordinator krozell@granvillecsd.org