Meet Sebastian, the recipient of Prisk Elementary School's Most Inspirational Student Award for 2023.

LBUSD recognizes one student from each school annually and this year's celebration will be a virtual event streamed on LBUSD's YouTube channel. On Wednesday, May 24th at 5:00 PM, you can watch Sebastian's video along with other outstanding inspirational students all across LBUSD! Congrats, Sebastian! We are proud of you!!!

Virtual Event for Most Inspiring Students

The Long Beach Unified School District will honor some of its most exemplary and resilient students during the annual Most Inspiring Students Virtual Award Ceremony, which debuts 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 24.

The ceremony, sponsored by LBUSD and the Long Beach Education Foundation, recognizes students who exemplify persistence, tremendous effort, good citizenship and service. Each school selects a student who serves as an example of perseverance and determination.

View the ceremony on LBUSD’s YouTube channel.

• Ruby finished in 5th Place with 6:43:41
• Ivy finished in 6th Place with 6:43:46
• Maya just missed the top 6, finishing in 7th with 6:43:74... but there's always next year!
• Skyler finished 14th overall, but first for Team Prisk's boys in 6:31:61 and Vinny came in next for Team Prisk's boys in 7:30:81.

SUCSESS appreciates their buddies for joining them at the movie night at the Prisk Theater!

Sharing snacks, glow sticks, and a great movie was so much fun!

Hope everyone had a GREAT TIME!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED - We are asking 5th Grade VIPS to volunteer for the last week's activities to make them successful for our kids. The volunteer days are so much fun and it's a great way to celebrate with the class of 2023. There are two events where we can use all the help we can get:

VOLUNTEER on Tuesday 6/13 - El Dorado Frontier Fun Day - there are many opportunities to help here (set up, ride the Big Red Bus, help with crafts, activities, food prep, and more). Please see the sign-up genius to sign up for spots. Please note that we are paying for all students and teachers to attend this day. Unfortunately, we can't cover all of the volunteers too. It is $18 per VIP to enter the El Dorado Frontier. If this does not work for your family, please send an email to prisk5thgrade@gmail.com, we want to make sure every family member who would like to help can be there. This is the biggest event of the week, and the more volunteers we get, the better the event will run.. FRONTIER 5th GRADE PARTY

VOLUNTEER on Wednesday 6/14 - Yearbook Signing Party - We are looking for volunteers to help with set up, monitoring kids, serving food, breaking down after the event, and more.

The more volunteers we have, the better this event will be! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b4facab29aafd0-yearbook#/

22-23 All-School Yearbook Orders Have BEGUN!

Capture Your Memories in this year’s Yearbook!

Click here or the attached image to view the flyer to get the website address and Prisk's passcode! Yearbooks are only $18.38!

ALL 5th Grade Student Yearbooks are FREE of CHARGE and will be distributed on the yearbook signing day during the final week of school!

Our next Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting is set for Monday, May 22nd at 6:30 p.m. in the Prisk Library.

Your participation is invaluable in making our PTA stronger and enhancing our children's educational experiences. Mark your calendars - we hope to see you there!

• It's our fifth and final Kindergarten Awards assembly of the year!
• Families of awardees are invited to attend.
• Families will be welcomed at the auditorium door (on Los Arcos) once all students are seated (approximately 1:55pm).
• Program begins at 2:00pm.

All students are invited to participate in Free Dress day on Friday, May 26th!

LBUSD and Prisk dress code guidelines for appropriateness apply, but students can wear any color tops and bottoms with appropriate logos or patterns! Pants with rips/holes are not allowed.. sorry!

This is a special day for students to have lunch with their parents/guardians/caregivers /grown ups!

Please enlarge the attached image to view the details about this special activity. It is very important that all families read this information even if you are unable to attend!

Hold onto your seats because Prisk Elementary School's Talent Show is happening this Friday and is set to steal the spotlight at Stanford Middle School beginning at 6:00 p.m!

Gather your family and friends to cheer for these stars in the making as they showcase their unique talents! Let's create a roar of applause that will echo in their hearts forever!

The countdown has begun.... we can't wait to see you there!

Please note that there will be no school on Monday, May 29th in observance of Memorial Day. This important national holiday honors the brave individuals who have given their lives in service to our country's armed forces.

It's a day of reflection and gratitude, and schools close to allow our community to participate in this observance. We encourage everyone to take a moment to remember and appreciate the sacrifices made for our freedoms.

Click here or the image below to view the flyers for community events, activities, clubs, teams, and extra-curricular activities in and around the Prisk area or in the city of Long Beach.

All flyers must go through LBUSD for approval and are then posted on peachjar.com.

"Each year the District develops a budget that is adopted and approved by the Board of Education. The LBUSD budget represents over $1 billion in expenditures supporting our students, including teaching staff, and school administration.

As part of our ongoing annual budget engagement process, we are looking for all staff, parents and the community’s best ideas on how to support our students. Input will help inform the overall district budget, including the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCAP describes how school districts intend to meet annual goals for all students, with specific activities to address state and local priorities.

One of the multiple ways to engage in the LBUSD Budget process is to participate in the ThoughtExchange, which is located at lbschools.net/LCAP. The ThoughtExchange asserts one question and allows participants to post ideas in their preferred language. In addition, each participant can rate other ideas.

Through past engagement opportunities, the LBUSD community voiced social-emotional well-being, enrichment, and tutoring as top priorities. To assist us in planning next year, what specifically can we do to continue to improve your child's experience in these areas?

With gratitude for your support. If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Equity, Engagement, and Partnerships, at 997-8322."

Report an Absence using this Google Form! You can even upload a note, test result, etc. These responses are checked daily!

*This form is also on the Prisk Website home page!

• LBUSD District Offices - (562) 997-8000
• Parking Enforcement (Non-Street Sweeping): (562) 570-2866
• Police Department (Non-Emergency): (562) 435-6711
• Long Beach Animal Control: 562-570-7387
• LBSUD School Safety - (562) 997-8101; This office is open 24/7 for schools and community members to help keep our campuses, staff, students, and families connected with our district police officers.

1. Click the link below or the attached image to go directly to the LBUSD Meal Menu Page https://www.lbschools.net/departments/nutrition-services/menus-nutrient-information
2. About halfway down the page, you will find "Elementary and K-8 Menus"
3. Select the menu for the correct month.

This is a Jamboard that anyone can edit and add MORE names of volunteers who help the PTA, Foundation, are a VIPS, or volunteer in general!nThe board is started, but this is just scratching the surface..... so, please ADD TO IT BY CLICKING this link or the attached images!

We are so thankful to EVERYONE who lends a helping hand.

Our 23-24 Vice President of Communications is moving/has moved so the PTA is looking for another interested person/nominee! If you are interested in helping, here is the job description:

• Manage Electronic Communications (Social Media)
• Create and Print Calendar of Events (Contact Information for PTA Officers or Chairpersons)
• Oversee Backpack Mail
• Attend PTA Board Meetings and PTA Association Meetings

You can also find a dream team to help you with any/all of these items... as the VP, you have the oversight, but you don't have to do it all by yourself!

If you have questions, please reach out to Sarah Oxley!

Click on the attached image to view and/or print a copy of the calendar.

More details for each of the spirit days will be in the newsletter the week(s) prior to the actual day, but most are self-explanatory and can be understood from the name of the day itself.

Do you want to help out in the classroom? Chaperone field trips with your child(ren)? Volunteer and cheer on our students at the Rocket Run on November 1st? And MORE???

All of these opportunities and activities require you to be a Volunteer in Public Schools (VIPS). Once you complete the application and requirements, your VIPS badge is good for FOUR YEARS!

Don't miss out on the chance to be a part of the school's volunteer community... it's the only way you can help out on campus with students or staff during the school day, so please become a VIPS today!

More information about VIPS can be found on the district website and/or you can click directly on this link to go straight to the online application.

It is so exciting to have filmed this video at Prisk featuring Nevaeh! It was shown at the Board of Education meeting this past Wednesday and is posted on LBUSD social media! Feel free to share!

A HUGE "shout out" to our SUCSESS program teachers and staff, our Speech & Language Pathologists, our Assistive Technology/Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AT/AAC) departments and EVERYONE who ensures that ALL STUDENTS are able to share their voice!

While filming the student spotlight that highlighted Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) with our student, Nevaeh, the district's multimedia services department asked us to do a podcast centered around the topic of AAC. We accepted the invitation and are happy to share the resulting video below! This podcast features Ms. Field from the district's AAC department , as well as myself and Ms. Lupo (Speech and Language Pathologist) from Prisk.

You might have to click the link and then open it in YouTube to view.

Prisk's amazing science lab teacher, Mr. Macander and our awesome Prisk student scientists were featured in this special video! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ioTGl2JYw

The “Students, Staff and School Celebrations” portion of LBUSD's March 15th Board of Education meeting included a video featuring a program at Prisk Elementary School where students from the nearby Adult Community Transition (ACT) program work as recreation aides. Check it out!

Thank you to Troop 403 for the fabulous idea and the even MORE fabulous final product

that will leave a long-time legacy at Prisk!!!!!!

Click here to view the information sent out about traffic & safety during the first month of school. It is now posted permanently on our website for easy reference!

Double-parking completely stops the flow of traffic and creates serious safety issues for everyone! And when someone double parks, the cars behind it who pass by them on the wrong side of the street are also contributing to a dangerous situation. While your frustration is understandable, contributing to the safety concern by doing this maneuver is simply NOT worth it.

Here is an image representing double-parking. For those not familiar with the term, you can see that cars are parked properly in the street alongside the curb.

The car the man is getting into is DOUBLE PARKED! You can see his car is completely blocking all traffic driving on that side of the road. The only way to continue is to drive AROUND the car on the WRONG side of the road! This is SO dangerous in SO many ways! Please avoid doing EITHER of these things! Again, while your frustration is understandable, contributing to the safety concern by doing this maneuver is simply NOT worth it.

While our staff will always do our best to support the community in communicating the expectations and intervening whenever possible, we encourage people to call parking enforcement (non-street sweeping) DIRECTLY at 562-570-2866. With "all hands on deck", perhaps we can ensure everyone is accountable for the safety of our students and our community.

We receive numerous reports about vehicles that are illegally parked, double-parked, etc. While our staff will support our community with these types of violations in various ways, we encourage people to call parking enforcement (non-street sweeping) directly at 562-570-2866. With "all hands on deck", perhaps we can ensure everyone is accountable for the safety of our students and our community.

A: For all students in grades K-5, the morning playground program logistics are as follows and are represented on the attached map:

• 8:00am - Morning play entry gate by kinder yard on Vernon opens (for students only) *Yellow and red star on the image below. Students can play in the supervised areas on the north side of the playground (in blue and red outline on the map). The south side of the school will be off limits during this time.
• 8:30am - Vernon gate continues to be open and cafeteria door on Los Arcos (blue star on the image below) opens for breakfast (students only).
• A bell will ring on the playground to signal to the morning play students that the cafeteria is open.
• They can choose to go to the cafeteria from the playground or they can choose to continue playing.
• If it is your desire that your child(ren) eat breakfast, please encourage them to make that choice. Our playground staff will also encourage children to eat breakfast, but cannot compel them to do so.
• 8:45am - All regular entry gates (hot pink stars plus yellow star on the image below) open for students and families for drop-off.
• 8:57am - Bell rings for students to line up for class.
• 9:00am - Gates closed and secured for the school day. All parents must exit the campus at that time.

Our playground is open from 8:00-9:00am. The Vernon gate opens at 8am, the cafeteria door opens at 8:30am, BUT the majority of the traffic in the morning is from about 8:45-9:00 when we open the gates for parents to come on campus with their children.

If you are not coming on campus with your child, I highly recommend dropping them off at the Vernon gate from 8:00-8:40 or the cafeteria door between 8:30 and 8:40.

I am open to adding the same gate we are adding at dismissal time, we do not have the supervision to cover that gate at that time so if anyone would like to volunteer to supervise the Albury gate from 8:40-9:00, please let us know. If someone is interested in coordinating volunteers (via sign-up genius or something), that would be great as well. If we can get volunteers to cover each day of the week, we can open it daily.

Another option is to drop your child(ren) off on Albury and let them walk to any of the open gates available for students. It's not a far walk at all and then you can avoid the large amount of traffic on Vernon, Fanwood, and Los Arcos. Just food for thought!

In response to feedback about traffic around the school, we will be opening an additional gate on Albury (the Stanford side), as indicated by the star on the attached map, at dismissal time from 3:05pm to 3:30pm. If you'd like your 1st-5th grade student(s) to use the new gate, please talk with them about the change.

Please understand that additional gates can alleviate some congestion, but it still is incumbent upon the drivers to follow safety rules, including the one most violated which is DOUBLE-PARKING.

Double-parking completely stops the flow of traffic and creates serious safety issues for everyone! And when someone double parks, the cars behind it who pass by them on the wrong side of the street are also contributing to a dangerous situation. While your frustration is understandable, contributing to the safety concern by doing this maneuver is simply NOT worth it.

The Prisk PTA and Foundation contribute to our school in so many ways, some of which you might not even realize! So... keep an eye out for the PTA & Foundation logos and when you see them you will know...

YES! OUR PRISK PTA & PRISK FOUNDATION DOES THAT!

JOIN US!

Here is some additional information on PTA & Foundation events, activities, etc. that you might want to consider based on your talents, skills, availability, and more....

• JOINUSEVERYFRIDAYat8:20am!
• We invite all Prisk Students to join this year’s Marathon Mile program.
• Grab your parents/guardians, grandparents, and siblings, too!
• Start walking/running once a week with us on Friday mornings starting at 8:20am.
• We will be recording the number of laps that our runners complete!
• At the end the year we’ll be recognizing any of our members who reach at least a half marathon (13.1 miles)

Join an amazing group of parents, guardians, staff, teachers, community members and more who make Prisk the best it can be for our students and families! Whether you can be involved a lot, a little, or can only help by getting a membership, WE WANT YOU to be a part of our team! https://jointotem.com/ca/long-beach/prisk-pta/join/register

Prisk Elementary PTA on Facebook

Parents of Prisk Pioneers Facebook Group

Instagram @PriskPTA

Earn $$ for Prisk Through Box Tops 4 Education!

Click this link or the attached image for more Information.

Help keep Prisk's surrounding streets clean! Sign up for Patch of Prisk here (or click the attached image).

Due to the size/font, here is the information written on the attached image:

• Homework Helpline is provided free by the LBUSD and consists of credentialed LBUSD teachers who guide students through homework assignments by telephone. The teachers are equipped with school textbooks and are trained to help the students help themselves.
  
• The teachers will ask for pertinent information such as full name and school of attendance. They enter this information into a student database to show a need for service.
  
• Students can call the Homework Helpline at (562) 437-2859 Monday through Thursday between 4:00pm and 6:30pm. Homework Helpline teachers can also be reached by email at homework@lbschools.net.

• This service is available to all students with an internet connected device in English and in Spanish.
• They do not need a public library card to access this service as long as your computer has a CA IP address
• Other languages are available between 10 am and 10 pm PST
• The average wait time for a tutor is less than 30 seconds
• https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/09/12/governor-newsom-announces-free-online-tutoring-available-to-all-californians-254-million-in-grants-to-improve-libraries-across-the-state/

Last year's School Site Council (SSC) worked to revise two required compliance documents. We intended to include them in the opening packet we sent home with the students on the first day of school but, in error, we did not. So, here's a copy of each for you now! These are public "living documents" that our SSC is able to revise any time it is needed so if you have any suggestions for updates/changes, etc. please email me, Principal Cohen at bcohen@lbschools.net or Mrs. Ruggiero (SSC Chairperson) at lruggiero@lbschools.net. Thank you!

There have been several inquiries into our library schedule and staffing for next school year, so this update to ensure all of our families know the plan for Prisk.

We have a library media assistant who schedules all classes to come through the library each week to check out books and hear at least one story that she reads aloud. Though our percentage of library media assistant time will be adjusted next year, our plan is to continue scheduling all classes to visit the library each week to check out books and have at least one story read aloud.

Thank you to those who inquired and for the recommendation to put this information in the newsletter.

Below are some helpful resources from LBUSD's Office of School Support Services (OSSS). It is encourages that you save these resources so you can easily reference them should you or a family member need help. (This information is now posted on Prisk's website and be moved in next week's Newsletter to the section for "Repeat, Please!" section below.)

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
  (800-273-8255) or text 988 to talk to a Crisis Text Line counselor.

• Disaster Distress Helpline
  Call 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746.The Disaster Distress Helpline (DDH) provides crisis counseling and support for anyone in the U.S. experiencing distress or other behavioral health concerns related to any natural or human-caused disaster, including public health emergencies.

• Jewish Family & Children's Service
  (562) 427-7916 - Individual, family, couples and group counseling is available depending on your particular situation and needs. Our intake specialists will speak with you and pair you with a counselor who can respond with compassion to your specific needs. The fees for JFCS’ services are based on a sliding scale. We accept many PPO plans and Health Net.

• Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
  Access Center 24/7 Helpline; (800) 854-7771; (562) 651-2549 TDD/TTY

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
  (800) 950-6264; Monday-Friday, 10 am to 6 pm ET; Text NAMI TO 741741

• National Domestic Violence Hotline
  (800-799-7233) - For survivors of domestic abuse, staying home to prevent the spread of COVID-19 may further compromise survivors’ safety. The link above provides specific tips for survivors in regards to creating safety plans and reaching out for help.

• Teen Line
  (310) 855-4673 or Text TEEN to 839863. Teen Line was created in 1980 by a group of mental health professionals who, through their personal work with teenagers, realized that a more inclusive approach to adolescent mental health was needed. After extensive research and consultation, TEEN LINE – a teen-to-teen hotline with community outreach services – was born.

• Trevor Project
  (866) 488 -7386 or text START to 678678. A national 24-hour, toll free confidential suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth.

• The LGBTQ Center - Long Beach:
  (562) 434-4455. The Center is committed to providing services to the LGBTQ community and approach treatment with an emphasis on trauma, anxiety, and/or depression informed by experiences of external and internalized homo-bi-trans-phobia.

Long Beach Unified School District partnered with Care Solace to support the well-being of our community. If you or a family member are looking for help with mental health or substance use, Care Solace can help you quickly find treatment options matched to your needs, regardless of the circumstance. This is a complimentary and confidential care coordination service provided by Long Beach Unified School District. If you would like to use Care Solace to help you find a mental health care provider:

• Call 888-515-0595. Support is available 24/7/365 in over 200 languages.

• Visit www.caresolace.com/lbusd and either search on your own or click “Book Appointment” for assistance by video chat, email, or phone.