THE BALBOA BEAT

Balboa Gifted/High Ability Magnet
THE BALBOA BEAT
Volume 4
Issue 8
17020 Labrador St. Northridge, CA 91325 818.349.4801
Principal: Jana Davenport
Vice Principal: Kristen LoVerme
Magnet Coordinator: Christine Chun
Beat Editor: Carla Cross
May – June 2012
Dear Balboa Families,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
From Mrs. Davenport..…...………..…..PG 1
From Kipp & Jenn Shiotani..……….....PG 1
Festival of the Arts Thank Yous……...PG 2
California Distinguished Magnet!...…..PG 2
Sports Night is Coming!…....………....PG 3
Teacher Events Thank Yous………....PG 3
Yearbooks Coming Soon……………..PG 3
Stop Drop and Roll
Coordinator Needed!..............PG 3
To the Student Council…………….….....PG 4
May/June Calendar …...……….……..PG 4
Help Needed at
Graduation…………….………..PG 4
As this school year rapidly comes to an end, I am reflecting on just a few of the things we were able to accomplish: a network upgrade including wireless connectivity,
new sod across campus, the renovation of the Balboa Discovery Garden, recognition as a 2012 California Distinguished School, and the submission of a petition for affiliated charter status. These things, along with the unwavering commitment of every Balboa teacher to provide a high-quality education to our students on a daily basis, gives us reason to acknowledge a job
well done. My hope is that every stakeholder in our community is proud to be
a part of Balboa Gifted Magnet. Many thanks to everyone who made this a
successful year and a wonderful place to be!
Principal Jana Davenport
Hello Balboa Families!
We can’t believe the end of the year is already upon us – our FINAL year at Balboa!
The 5 years we have been here since Sydney started in 1st Grade have been amazing,
and we are sad to see it come to an end. We are honored that you have allowed us to
have such an active role in our school community, and we would like to take this opportunity to say a final "Thank You" to all of you for having made our years here so special, and for all
of the hard work all of you put in to making Balboa such a special place for our kids.
From producing Balboa Idol, to Spellathon and Magazine Drive tabulations, to Fall Picnic and Sports
Nights, to Kipp's favorite food events: the Welcome Back and Teacher Appreciation Luncheons, and
the Holiday Potluck, to serving as your co-Presidents this past year, we leave with wonderful memories of the time we have spent here and the many friendships we have made.
Balboa continues to be in a strong position moving forward...a
"Distinguished School" award, possible Charter affiliation, a
dedicated Board in place for next year - all point to future
years of Balboa continuing to be an awesome school, and a
wonderful place for your children to be.
Thank you all again! It has truly been an amazing ride!
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye!
Love, Kipp, Jennifer and Sydney Shiotani
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PAGE 2
Nearly $20,000 raised! Thank you to the Festival of the Arts
Committee and all of the parents that helped out the day of the
event! Special thanks to Erica Arrendondo, Alan Au, Raquel
Cruz, Maggie McNally, Kelly Mitchell, Emily Noro, Sonia Perez,
Lisa Ponder, Stephanie Schneider, Holly Stuczynski & Christina
Yu. And a huge thanks to the Cross family, who donated food, snacks and water to the Festival!
Our greatest thank you's for all you did for this year’s Festival of the Arts! You rocked it!
Families came, spent money, did arts and crafts, made tile walls, ate at the
food trucks, rocked to the music, took home gift baskets and most importantly had a FUN time! Thank you for sharing your time and talents, and
being so passionate about your work. Without your help this event would
not have been as successful!
-Overall Chair, Alison Thompson
Balboa Idol Season 7 Judged A Great Success!
Balboa Idol was a lot of fun and a huge success! We’d especially like to thank
our emcee Mr. Jake “Seacrest” Brescher, and our celebrity judges, Ms. Angela “J
-Lo” Bronson, Mr. Earl “R. Jackson” Pinckney, and Mr. Paul “S. Tyler” Wilkins!
We would also like to thank Principal Davenport, Mrs. Chun, Ms. Vickers & Ms.
Conklin for all their help and support! And a big thanks to our fabulous TA’s
who helped backstage: Mr. William, Ms. Brenda, and Mr. Brian. What would we do without you!
Thank you to Kipp and Jennifer Shiotani for being there as a great support. Thanks to Elaine for
handling all the ticketing and Sally Protiva as well as Randy Severino for our amazing props and décor. And thank you to Erica Arrendondo, Robin Irvine, Jodie Xua, and to all our amazing volunteers
who helped at auditions and did the ushering, backstage, and manned the ticketing table!
Thank you to all the professional performers who volunteered their time to judge the Balboa Idol
auditions! We would like to express our appreciation to the following people on their assistance in
getting Balboa Idol goodie bag items: John & Cathy Gabriel, Christina Yu, Erica Arrendondo, the
Balboa Parent Association, and thank you to Sydney Shiotani and Audree Melekyan for filling each
and every one of the 30 bags!
We also want to thank Nick Yagohbian and Aram Guyumjian for being the event photographers,
Kipp Shiotani for lighting the show, and Arsen Mkrtchyan for videotaping the show! And thank you
to Party Divine for providing us fabulous balloon décor!
Whew! That's a lot of thanking, and all well deserved! See you next
year at Balboa Idol 2013!!
-Karmella Grigoryan, Producer
Balboa Wins California
Distinguished School Award!
Way to Go Balboa!
L to R - Stephanie Schneider, Jenn Shiotani, Christine
Chun, Jana Davenport and Pam Sasada
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PAGE 3
SPORTS NIGHT IS COMING!!!!!
Sports Night is Friday, June 1st from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. on the school playground. And the attractions are FREE! All games and events are free of
charge to our wonderful families for all their support this year. This annual
event is the Balboa Parent Association's big "Thank You" to everyone who
helped make this year an amazing success. And when we say "everyone,"
we mean YOU!
This year promises to be stupendous and a lot of fun! Attractions include All new Laser tag game
Mini-Golf, Hula Hoop Contest, Handball Contest, Basketball Free Throw Contest, and more! All this fun takes a little help
from our terrific Balboa family. If you can possibly volunteer for an hour to help set up, monitor a game during the event or
assist with clean up, it would be GREATLY appreciated.
Please contact Kelly McCann-Miller at [email protected] or cell: (818)823-6466
Thank You Teachers and
Parents—You’re the Best!!!!!!
The Festival of Arts Committee would like to thank
the parents for their tremendous response to the
Teacher Events!
Truly, we couldn’t do it without a lot of behind-thescenes help from our volunteers. We would like to
thank Leila Vickers in the office for handling the tons
of paperwork and checks coming in for the events, the
lovely ladies in TAP who copied and stapled all the
packets for us, Kelly Miller for doing all the shopping
for event supplies, Maggie and Erica for calling businesses to try and get discounts or free admission,
Stephanie Schneider for obtaining some of the venues
for of our teacher events, and Adam and Holly Stuczynski for helping us with discounted tickets for
sporting events.
We also want to thank Sally Protiva, Christina Yu,
Sandra Gibson, Alison Thompson, and Raquel Cruz
for helping with after auction processing, and a special thanks goes out to Karen Berlin for making the
many deposits and reimbursements we needed to
make it all happen.
And most of all, thank you to all the awesome
Balboa teachers and staff who donated their
time and energies into making the Teacher
Events so memorable for our kids!
COMING SOON………
Yearbooks are in production and will
be distributed the first or second
week of June, depending on delivery
date.
Thank you to the
Balboa families,
teachers and Student Council for the
great photos that
captured the 20112012 school year!
Thanks especially to
the wonderful parents who were involved in putting together the yearbook. This keepsake would not be
possible without your design talents.
Volunteer needed……
Stop Drop and Roll
Coordinator
This is an important job to
keep our children safe in the
carpool lane each and every
day. If you are interested in
taking on this job or have questions about what is involved,
please contact John Gabriel
818-344-4465 or e-mail him at
[email protected]
THANK YOU JOHN FOR ALL
YOUR HARD WORK !!!
May/June 2012
Mon
Sun
SUMMER
VACATION IS
ON ITS WAY!!!!
May 13
Tue
14
Wed
15
Thu
16
Fri
17
Sat
18
19
Celebrity
Day
20
21
22
23
24
OPEN
HOUSE
25
26
June 1
2
—————
27
28
29
Memorial
Day
NO
SCHOOL
TO THE
STUDENT
COUNCIL
Thank You
for a
Wonderful Year!
Love,
Ms. Bronson,
Mrs. Banuelos
Ms. Mussack
3
30
Minimum
Day
31
Sports Day
——————
BPA Meeting
(Auditorium
7:00 pm)
4
5
Sports Night
5-8 pm
6
7
8
9
Hawaiian
Day
Min Day
12:39
10
11
10
13
14
15
16
Min Day
12:39
17
18
5th Grade
Culmination
8:30 am
19
Last Day of
School
————-
1:34 pm
dismissal
August 14 - 1st day of school
2012-13 school year
Congratulations to our 5th Graders
We will miss you next year and we wish you all the best
in middle school!!!
Grad-O-Grams
sponsored by Student Council
On Sale June 4 - June 13
(Handed out June 14)
$1.00 Each
at the Pavilion at recess
HELP NEEDED AT GRADUATION
4th Grade Parents– it is a Balboa tradition to help the
Graduation Committee set up for Culmination. Volunteers
are need to help with set-up (from 7-8 a.m.), serve refreshments (from 9-10 a.m.) and help clean-up (from 10-11 a.m.)
For more info, contact Diane Lawhorn at [email protected].