Short Ave. IB Learners Strive to Be...

A Message From Mr. Lamb

Happy Weekend Short Avenue Families and Friends!

It is hard to believe how quickly this school year is moving! Summer has come and gone, September is nearly behind us, and already we are seeing so much growth taking place in our classrooms. Every day, our students are becoming more confident, more curious, and more connected to their learning and to one another. There is something truly special about watching a school community grow together.

This week brought one of my favorite annual treats: being interviewed by our TK students as they navigate their Community Unit! I always look forward to sitting with these young learners and watching their minds at work. Their questions, observations, and genuine curiosity are a wonderful reminder of the joy that comes with learning. Our youngest Dolphins have so much to teach us!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped make our first Beautification Day of the year such a success. Whether you pulled weeds, planted, cleaned, organized, moved, painted, or simply showed up ready to help, your time and, yes, your sweat made a difference! It truly takes a village to maintain and improve our beautiful campus, and I am grateful for the many members of our Short Ave family who continue to roll up their sleeves and pitch in.

Looking ahead to next week, we have two items of note:

I will be co-hosting my first monthly Every School Safe & Positive Behavior meeting on Zoom with Ms. Marina Davis. Please see the flyer below for details. Zoom for Meeting: bit.ly/ShortESSafetyMtg
We will also conduct a Shelter-in-Place Emergency Drill. I will announce the start, and teachers will close doors and windows and turn off air-conditioning units for approximately 15 minutes. This should not impact student learning at all.

Thank you for helping us continue to Level Up, Dolphins!

Have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to seeing you on Monday!

Mr. Lamb

Important Dates: Mark Your Calendars

9/28- PBIS/Safety Zoom, 6pm, bit.ly/ShortESSafetyMtg

10/7- Fall Picture Day

10/8- Morning Brew with Mr. Lamb, Parent Center Rm. 4

10/24- Fall Festival

10/30- Halloween Parade and Assembly @ 8:30am

10/29-10/30- Dia De Los Muertos Ofrenda viewing

11/02- Dia De Los Muertos Conchas and Hot Chocolate

Friends Of Short Avenue (FoSA)

📣 ANNUAL GIVING: LAST CALL!

Wednesday is the LAST DAY to give! We’re in the final few days of Annual Giving, and every donation between now and Wednesday can help your grade earn one of our celebrations!

🍕🏰 PIZZA + BOUNCE HOUSE PARTY
The grade that raises the most money wins!

🍨 ICE CREAM SUNDAE BAR
EVERY grade that reaches 100% participation earns an Ice Cream Sundae Bar — with dairy-free options too!

How close is your grade to 100% and how much has each grade raised?

Remember, participation is what matters for the Sundae Bar. The suggested Annual Giving donation is $1,500 per student, but please give whatever amount feels right for your family. A donation of any amount counts toward your grade’s participation!

If you haven’t participated yet, now is the time. Let’s see how many grades we can get to 100% by Wednesday and which grade will raise the most money!

One-Time Donation: https://www.pledge.to/One-time-short-avenue-annual-giving-fundraiser

Monthly Donation (10 months): https://www.pledge.to/2026-monthly-short-avenue-annual-giving-fundraiser

☕️ Help Us Stock the Teacher & Staff Lounge! 🍫

Let’s keep our amazing Short Avenue teachers and staff fueled throughout the school day! We’re looking for families to help stock the staff lounge with Nespresso pods, snacks, treats and other goodies to enjoy. It’s an easy way to show our teachers and staff a little love and appreciation.

👉 Sign up to bring an item: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D4BAAAE2BA3F5C07-65801649-teachers#/

If you sign-up, bring your items in on your delivery date and let the front office know that you’re going to take it to the teachers lounge. The entrance to the teachers lounge is located between the back door of the auditorium and the cafeteria.

🌎 Share Your Culture with Short Avenue!

Our Cultural Diversity Committee is looking for families who want to help celebrate the many cultures, traditions, and communities that make Short Avenue special! In addition to our annual Cultural Diversity Day, we’d love to bring more cultural celebrations to campus throughout the year. Whether it’s Lunar New Year, Diwali, Nowruz, Día de los Muertos, or another tradition meaningful to your family, we’d love to hear from you.

Families will help lead and shape these celebrations, while our Cultural Diversity Committee helps connect families, coordinate with the school, and bring ideas to life.

Want to get involved?
Join the Cultural Diversity Committee WhatsApp to connect, share ideas, and help support upcoming celebrations. https://chat.whatsapp.com/Hshj1rIm7em0QmsT9uKWDd?mode=gi_t

If you’re interested in planning or spearheading a cultural celebration, please email Stephany Verde: stephanyverde@friendsofshortavenue.org.

💀🌼 First up: Día de los Muertos! If you’re interested in joining the Día de los Muertos Committee, add it on WhatsApp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HuWlPE9rskD1GKNNbSwV9O?mode=gi_t

🎃💀 Fall Festival + Día de los Muertos — We Need You!

Two of our favorite fall traditions are coming up, and we need parent volunteers to help bring them to life! ✨

🎃 Fall Festival Committee
Fall Festival is on Saturday, October 24th and is one of our BIGGEST community events of the year, with nearly 1,000 attendees! Haunted house, carnival games, petting zoo, food trucks, DJ + dance floor, crafts, field games and more! It takes a lot of volunteers to pull off an event this big. If you’re interested in helping create the magic for our kids and community, join the Fall Festival WhatsApp chat and get involved! https://chat.whatsapp.com/DHZ3IbHStbJEXvVbeMBVyb?mode=gi_t

💀🌼 Día de los Muertos Committee
Help us celebrate Día de los Muertos at Short Avenue! We’re looking for volunteers to help create and set up our ofrenda, invite families to contribute items, and help pass out conchas and hot chocolate as students and families visit the ofrenda and learn about this special tradition. Join the committee WhatsApp chat and get involved! https://chat.whatsapp.com/HuWlPE9rskD1GKNNbSwV9O?mode=gi_t

🎬 THANK YOU FOR AN AMAZING MOVIE NIGHT!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Family Movie Night! It was such a fun night for our Short Avenue community — and we sold over 200 tickets!

A huge thank you to the incredible volunteers who helped bring the night to life. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Ashlee Mehle • Jodi Siegel • Natalie McGhehey • Brandy Smith • Mandy Sommers • Julia Gutnik • Amy Wiedre • Mike Livezey • Mona Mohammadi • Leah Potok

Thank you for showing up, pitching in, and making Movie Night such a success! 🎥🍿✨

Avril's Community Corner

LAUSD Family Newsletter

LAUSD releases a Family Newsletter every Wednesday at 4pm

Here is this week’s update.

Garden Update

This week the students who attended Garden Class learned about p0arts of a seed, dissected a seed, and then make a delicious chia seed, sun butter, and coconut pudding!

Social Media

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

A Yom Kippur post, a FoSA Meeting reminder, A Restaurant Night reminder, photos from garden class.

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!

Garden Fun!

Garden Class

Beautification Day!

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED

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!! You must be an APPROVED volunteer with a NEGATIVE TB TEST to volunteer on campus in the classroom, or attend a field trip. Please know approval can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks depending on how many volunteers the district is processing.

ALL Volunteers (both new and returning) must watchThe Mandatory Volunteer Orientation Zoom recording, if you did NOT attend the live zoom on WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH. There is a Code Word in the video that you will be asked!

2026/27 Mandatory Volunteer Orientation Recording

1. ALL Volunteers (New AND Returning) must first fill out the LAUSD Volunteer Application through this LAUSD VOLUNTEER LINK! Please only check Tier II assignments. 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 .

2. All Volunteers must have a Negative TB test. Please email Avril your Negative TB test AFTER filling out the LAUSD Volunteer Application. TB tests are good for 4 years once you are approved.

SEE THE FLYER BELOW ABOUT A FREE DISTRICT TB SCREENING on Tuesday August 25th from 5:00 to 6:30pm at Daniel Webster Middle School.

New volunteers must have a recent negative test done within 60 days of being processed by me, meaning if you did your TB test more than 60 days ago, you will need to have it re-certified by a medical professional, get a new test or pass a TB assessment. PLEASE email a photo of your negative result with your name, date of test and place and/or medical professional 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 Returning 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 2022, it will expire on your date in 2026. If you did it in 2023 it will expire in 2027.

Here is a link the the most recent Volunteer Guide 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. Please see the LAUSD Volunteer Page for answers to questions.

https://www.lausd.org/volunteer

5. Your official Volunteer Badge will be mailed to the office and will live there on the counter in our Badge Bin. Badges are filed alphabetically. You are responsible for wearing your badge when you are volunteering on campus, and for RETURNING your badge to the bin. Please DO NOT take your badge home!

Parent Portal

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. We ask for every student to hav e at least one parent or guardian signed up for the Parent Portal. Please sign up for the Parent Portal, at this link. You should have received a letter in your child's backpack at the beginning of school with your child's student ID and your own parent pin. 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.

🎨 PUT YOUR STUDENT’S ART ON DISPLAY AT SHORT AVE!

Turn your child’s masterpiece into an Art Banner featured on our art wall along the perimeter fence! Their artwork will be enlarged and displayed on campus for an entire year for our whole community to enjoy.

It’s such a special way to celebrate your student’s creativity while adding color and personality to our campus!

🎂 And don’t forget about Birthday Marquee messages! Celebrate your student’s birthday with a personalized message on the Short Ave marquee.

Both are fun ways to make your Dolphin feel extra special — while supporting FoSA and our school! 💙

Art Banners: https://friendsofshortavenue.org/collections/art-banner/products/art-banner
Birthday Marquee: https://friendsofshortavenue.org/collections/birthday-marquee

🎈 Celebrate Your Shortie’s Birthday on the Marquee!

Did you know you can wish your child a Happy Birthday on the Short Avenue School marquee?

Light up their day and proceeds benefit FoSA and help support Short Avenue! Click below to purchase and remember to enter your child’s name and birthdate in the Special Instructions section at checkout, and we’ll take care of the rest!

Purchase now so you don’t have to remember later. We’ll schedule it and make sure their birthday message goes up when their special day arrives!

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

I am your Community Rep

I am Avril Lipsky, your Community Rep. I was a parent here at Short from 2013 to 2019, and was hired as the Community Rep in 2019. I am responsible for approving volunteers, (more on that below!!) helping families sign up for the Parent Portal, taking photos and posting to our Instagram and Facebook. I also help spread the word about LAUSD Family Academy, and lots more district resources. I am here to answer your questions, or get you to the person who can! Please don't hesitate to reach out. My email will be in every Weekly Wave: avril.lipsky@lausd.net

The Parent Center has moved! We are now just past the front office in Room 4, please come visit!

LAUSD Family Academy

Each month LAUSD offers a variety of classes, both in person and on zoom. Please click this link to learn more:

LAUSD Family Academy

A Message From Mr. Lamb

Important Dates: Mark Your Calendars

Friends Of Short Avenue (FoSA) Friends Of Short Avenue (FoSA)

📣 ANNUAL GIVING: LAST CALL!

How close is your grade to 100% and how much has each grade raised?

☕️ Help Us Stock the Teacher & Staff Lounge! 🍫

🌎 Share Your Culture with Short Avenue!

🎃💀 Fall Festival + Día de los Muertos — We Need You!

🎬 THANK YOU FOR AN AMAZING MOVIE NIGHT!

Avril's Community Corner Avril's Community Corner

LAUSD Family Newsletter

Garden Update

Social Media

Garden Fun!

Garden Class

Beautification Day!

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED

Volunteering!

Parent Portal

🎨 PUT YOUR STUDENT’S ART ON DISPLAY AT SHORT AVE!

🎈 Celebrate Your Shortie’s Birthday on the Marquee!

I am your Community Rep

LAUSD Family Academy

Friends Of Short Avenue (FoSA)

Avril's Community Corner

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED