A Message from Mr. Lamb:

Happy Weekend Short Avenue Families and Friends!

It is always good to take a moment to purposefully acknowledge, appreciate, and even celebrate good things in our lives. The work of school is meant to be a challenge. But, at the same time, it is punctuated with growth and achievements. Too often we focus only on the negative or on a struggle. This week I want to highlight 3 items for us to celebrate together.

As our community knows, this year is an evaluation year for our school with IB. Our formal evaluation visit was in March and we celebrated how smoothly and successfully the two-day visit went. Now, it is really time to CELEBRATE! The final evaluation report from the International Baccalaureate organization was delivered, and the results are extraordinary. Our school earned several commendations recognizing the strength of our instructional program, our commitment to student agency, and the dedication of our staff and families. Most exciting of all, we received no corrective actions, which means we have been fully reauthorized as an IB World School for another four years. This accomplishment is a meaningful validation of the collective work, belief, and partnership that make our school such a special place for children to learn and thrive. Congratulations to every member of our community for this outstanding achievement.

Thursday evening brought another proud moment as the Venice Chamber of Commerce hosted the annual Wave Awards honoring fifteen inspirational educators throughout our community. We were thrilled to celebrate our very own Tyler Geuvjehizian, as this year’s Short Avenue recipient. The theme of the night was “Lighting the Way: Inspiring Minds, Igniting Futures.” Tyler was recognized for her passion, her heart, and her dedication to her students and our school.

Finally, as we celebrate Mother’s Day today, we extend heartfelt appreciation to all mothers and mother figures. Your love, encouragement, sacrifice, and strength shape lives in immeasurable ways. Thank you for the joy, compassion, and hope you bring to our children and community every single day. We hope today, hopefully this whole weekend, provides time for reflection, laughter, rest, and moments with family and loved ones as we celebrate the care and guidance that mothers provide every stage of childhood and growth.

Thank you all for your continued support!

See you Monday!

Mr. Lamb

Mark Your Calendars...

5/13- Multilingualism Awards @ 5pm (parents were sent invitations)

5/21- 5th Grade Exhibition, 5pm

5/25- Memorial Day, no school

6/09- 5th Grade Graduation

6/10- Last Day of School, 1pm dismissal

Bottles Needed- Help our 5th Grade Students!

Please help our 5th graders with their exhibition project by sending in any empty plastic bottles that you have at home. The bottles should be labeled as CA CRV or CA Cash Refund. The goal of their project is to eliminate the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean. They will use the money raised from the bottle recycling drive to adopt an endangered sea animal. You can drop off your bottles in the box outside the front office. Thank you!

LAUSD Summer of Learning

Program runs from June 22 – July 20

Los Angeles Unified provides students with core academic support, opportunities to enhance their mastery of academic subjects for college readiness, and enrichment courses designed to engage and motivate students in learning through self-selected courses of interest. The TK-7th Summer School program will be offered in person and is designed to support core instruction, provide targeted academic intervention in a small group setting, as well as in-person enrichment activities in the Arts and Sciences at all participating TK-7th summer school sites. Click this link for more info. (Including participating school sites)

Student registration will open April 9, 2026. More details to follow.

BOOK FAIR THANK YOU!

📚 A HUGE thank you to our incredible Short Ave community for making this year’s Used Book Fair such a success! Because of your generosity, we received over 2,500 book donations. Thank you to all the families who donated books, shopped the fair, and helped create such a fun and exciting experience for our students. Seeing the kids so excited about books and reading was truly the best part!

Special shout out to Diana Clephane, Na'ama Levy, Leah Potok, Pat Sisson, and Jill Isaacs for all of your hard work and leadership in making the Used Book Fair happen.

What an amazing night at Food Truck Fiesta!

It was such a wonderful way to close out the school year as a community. Families spread out on the lawn, kids played together, music filled the air, and everyone got to relax, connect, and enjoy a beautiful evening together.

A huge thank you to Sybil Dessau and Amy Wiedre for coordinating such a fantastic event and making the night run so smoothly!

We’re also so grateful to the incredible Del Rey Jazz Band for providing the perfect soundtrack for the evening, and to our amazing food vendors: Windsor Hills Pizza, Surfer Taco, Gourmet Genie and Sonny & Flo’s Ice Cream.

And we have to give a special shout out to Sonny & Flo’s — the line was literally around the block! Don’t worry… they’ll definitely be back for more Short Ave events in the

🍎💙 Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week

This week, we had the honor of celebrating the incredible teachers and staff who make Short Ave such a special place for our kids every single day. FoSA was so happy to provide breakfast on Monday, a snack cart on Wednesday, and lunch on Friday as a small token of our appreciation for all they do.

A huge thank you to Maxine's Cafe & Bakery for generously donating breakfast items for our staff! We also want to thank everyone who helped make this week so special — the amazing volunteers who decorated the staff lounge, served breakfast and lunch, stocked the snack cart, and all of our wonderful Class Ambassadors who helped show our teachers extra love and appreciation this week.

It truly takes a village, and we are so grateful for this community coming together to show our teachers and staff how loved and appreciated they are.

Ms. Geuvjehizian is our 2026 WAVE Award Winning Teacher!

Congratulations to Tyler Geujehizian, our 2nd grade teacher in Room 22! The WAVE Awards are hosted by the Venice Chamber of Commerce to recognize outstanding teachers in the Venice area. It is a beautiful event filled with heart warming speeches, laughter and tears. This year's theme was "Lighting the Way: Inspiring Minds Igniting Futures." Ms. Geujehizian spoke about how her students are the ones "truly lighting the way. I'm just lucky enough to walk beside them."

Thank YOU for Appreciating All of our Staff This Week!

Staff Appreciation Week was incredible! We all felt so loved! From Breakfast on Monday, to a roaming snack cart mid week, and lunch on Friday, plus all the cards, gifts and flowers!!! Thank you!!!

All Stars Rugby Team!

Last Saturday May 2nd, our All Stars Rugby team competed. The kids ALL did a fabulous job and displayed true teamwork and sportsmanship.

Congratulations to:

Lilyana Crespo-Pfannkuch

Isaac McGinnis

Tomas Contreras

Taylor Dickerson

Asher Gambel

David Karakoc

Thomas Karney

Colman Goshen

A BIG thank you to our All Stars staff Diego Moreno, Ana Santos, and Mary Alvarado for spending their Saturday with our ALL STARS!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month!

Please see the flyers below for the May 15th Parent Workshop on Zoom about Sporting Student Mental Health!

2026/27 VOLUNTEER PORTAL OPENS MAY 26TH!

Hey Short Ave Volunteers, The Office of Student and Family Engagement will open the Volunteer Program Application for the 2026/27 school year on May 26th! Mark your calendars to fill out a NEW APPLICAION to be approved and ready to volunteer at the start of NEXT School year! If you are a new volunteer you will need to get me a recent negative TB test. The Volunteer portal for THIS school year is CLOSED!

LAUSD Family Academy Hybrid Summit

Please add the Family Academy Hybrid Summit to your calendar.

Social Media

This last week of school, I posted on our Instagram and Facebook:

Photos from Monday's Breakfast from FoSA, a video promoting the Used Book Fair, Pictures from the Ducks who visited campus, Food Truck and Used Book Fair Pics, Photos from the WAVE Awards, and a Congratulations on being a Re-authorized IB School!!

Please set you Instagram notifications to be notified when I post, so you don't miss anything, and of course like and comment on our posts, it is the best way to see what is happening on campus and get important reminders!

Staff Appreciation!

Used Book Fair!

Ducks!

🎨 Short Ave Art Banner Program

Did your kids create a lot of art over break? Let it shine on campus!
Students can submit artwork to be printed and displayed on outdoor banners around school.

https://friendsofshortavenue.org/collections/art-banner

🎉 Birthday Marquee

Celebrate your child’s birthday in lights. The Birthday Marquee is a fun way to make their week extra special.

Please allow at least 72 hours notice for requests.

🎈 Reserve your spot:

https://friendsofshortavenue.org/collections/birthday-marquee

Sibling Interest List for 2026/27

Attention Short Ave Staff and Families with younger children/silbings who you would like to attend Short Ave next school year, 2026/27. PLEASE fill out this Google Form so we know who you are! This includes.both Neighborhood Families and those on Permit.

https://forms.gle/cHu2nmr2wFjN3R3h9

Please understand that we cannot guarantee a spot for our sibling and staff children who do not reside in our designated neighborhood. But if we do have room for permits, you will recieve priority over outside families looking to permit in. PLEASE have a solid plan B in place in case our neighborhood numbers exceed our capacity. We are seeing a trend that more of our neighborhood families are enrolling, and thus we might not know our numbers for sure until after school starts in August 2026. After this week, this link will live in the Already Published section at the bottom of the Wave.

Volunteering

Are you interested in volunteering in your child's classroom, the library, the garden, or going on a field trip? We LOVE volunteers and hope that you will be one!! PLEASE NOTE: Everyone who wants to volunteer MUST FILL OUT THE VOLUNTEER APPLICATION EVERY YEAR!

1.You must be an APPROVED volunteer with a NEGATIVE TB TEST to volunteer on campus in the classroom, or attend a field trip. Please email Avril your Negative TB test first, soon after filling out the LAUSD Volunteer Application.

New volunteers must have a recent negative test done within 60 days of filling out your application. PLEASE email a photo of your negative result with your name, date of test and place and/or doctor who performed the test visible to avril.lipsky@lausd.net so that I can enter it into your application. TB tests for returning volunteers are good for 4 years. If you are a Returing Volunteer, you still must fill out a Volunteer Application every year. Your TB test should auto populate in the application. Please check your TB test date. If you did your original test in 2021, it will expire on your date in 2025. If you did it in 2022, it will expire in 2026.

2. Please fill out the Volunteer Application through this LAUSD VOLUNTEER LINK! This is for BOTH new and Returning Volunteers. Do NOT check Tier III assignments, as we do not typically have volunteers do those jobs. Tier III requires a fingerprint, if you want to be cleared for Tier III please email me to discuss avril.lipsky@lausd.net .

Here is a link to the 2025/26 Volunteer Information Guide

And here is a link to the 2025/26 Volunteer Job Aide to become a volunteer, if you want a step by step visual of how to fill out the volunteer application.

3. Volunteers need to sign a Liability Waiver and the Commitment Form electronically in the application..You do NOT need to email them to me.

4.. ALL Volunteers (both new and returning) MUST WATCH The Mandatory Volunteer Orientation Zoom , if you did NOT attend the live Zoom on 9/24.

Here is a link to the 36 minute recording:

Https://bit.ly/4pX9Xi7

5. Approval can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks depending on how many volunteers the district is processing. You will recieve an email from the district when you are fully approved.

Parent Portal

In early September a letter was sent home to families who do not have a registered parent portal account. The LAUSD Parent Portal is LAUSD’s Parent Access Support System portal. It is a one-stop online system that connects parents and guardians to important information about their child's education. It is secure...it is personalized to your child...and it is custom-made for YOU, our parents and guardians. Please sign up for the Parent Portal, at this link. If you are having any difficulty with your account, please try resetting your password. You can also contact the main office if you are having any other difficulties.

Weekly Wave

Week of May 11, 2026

A Message from Mr. Lamb:

Mark Your Calendars...

Bottles Needed- Help our 5th Grade Students!

LAUSD Summer of Learning

BOOK FAIR THANK YOU!

What an amazing night at Food Truck Fiesta!

🍎💙 Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week

Ms. Geuvjehizian is our 2026 WAVE Award Winning Teacher!

Thank YOU for Appreciating All of our Staff This Week!

All Stars Rugby Team!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month!

2026/27 VOLUNTEER PORTAL OPENS MAY 26TH!

LAUSD Family Academy Hybrid Summit

Social Media

Staff Appreciation!

Used Book Fair!

Ducks!

🎨 Short Ave Art Banner Program

🎉 Birthday Marquee

Sibling Interest List for 2026/27

Volunteering

Parent Portal

Short Avenue IB Learners Strive to Be... Short Avenue IB Learners Strive to Be...

A Message from Mr. Lamb:

Mark Your Calendars...

Bottles Needed- Help our 5th Grade Students!

LAUSD Summer of Learning

FoSA FoSA

BOOK FAIR THANK YOU!

What an amazing night at Food Truck Fiesta!

🍎💙 Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week

Avril's Community Corner Avril's Community Corner

Ms. Geuvjehizian is our 2026 WAVE Award Winning Teacher!

Thank YOU for Appreciating All of our Staff This Week!

All Stars Rugby Team!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month!

2026/27 VOLUNTEER PORTAL OPENS MAY 26TH!

LAUSD Family Academy Hybrid Summit

Social Media

Staff Appreciation!

Used Book Fair!

Ducks!

Previously Published Previously Published

🎨 Short Ave Art Banner Program

🎉 Birthday Marquee

Sibling Interest List for 2026/27

Volunteering

Parent Portal