Dolphin Dash Registration Is Open!

Get ready, because we are coming in HOT with less than 4 weeks to go until the Dolphin Dash! We have three race days: April 2nd at Vista, April 3rd at View and April 4th at Valley. We are super excited that this fun event returns to our Hermosa school campuses to raise much-needed funds for our schools! 

WHO: Hermosa View, Vista, and Valley Students - All Grades: preschool-8

WHY: Help HVPTO raise much needed funds for our schools. These funds benefit ALL Students across preschool, elementary and middle school. This is HVPTO’s biggest fundraiser of the year and makes up 45% of our spending budget for the schools!

WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday, April 2nd at Vista, Thursday, April 3rd at View and Friday, April 4th at Valley. We are thrilled to host Dolphin Dashes on our campuses so that ALL students can participate!

HOW: Register your student online at Pledgestar.com. Follow the easy instructions to set up your student’s page and then share it with friends, family and neighbors to help raise money for HVS 

NOW: Don’t delay! All students who register and share on Pledgestar will get a super cool Dolphin Dash T-shirt, and if you share your Pledgestar site 10 times by this Saturday, March 15th, you will earn BONUS raffle tickets to win cool prizes! 

Check out all of our incentives HERE! Remember, the more you share and raise, the more you earn! Think HVS swag, ice cream, pizza, and more!

GOAL: Our goal is $100 per student to help us reach our district-wide $100,000 goal

VOLUNTEER: Sign-up to lend a hand on Dash Day at View, Vista or Valley!

QUESTIONS: Email dolphindash@hvpto.com

Check back next week to see how much we have raised and which classes are leading the pack!

A HUGE thank you to our generous sponsors (go ahead and give them a click!): 

Blue Elephant @thebluelephanthb

CBE Law Group | @cbe_law_group

Coast Music | @coastmusic

Concierge Mobile Animal Hospital | @concierge_mobile_animal_hospital

Creamy Boys Ice Cream | @creamyboysicecream

Deni Design | @deni.design

The Dunbabin Family

Frost Law Firm, PC

Grateful Dog Clubhouse @gratefuldogsclubhouse

Hermosa Cyclery | @hermosa_cyclery

Highland Commercial Roofing @highlandcommercialroofing

Honest History @honesthistory

Island Dental

Jen Caskey Group | @jencaskeygroup

Karabell Dentistry | @insta_dentist

Keller Williams South Bay @kwsouthbay

Lombardi Construction | @lombardiconstruction

Miles DiGiannantonio Fighting Spirit Memorial Fund

Paul Baboolal of Northwestern Mutual

Pedal Ace | @pedal_ace

Pettis Law Firm

Pier Financial Group

Shake Shack | @shakeshack

Shoreline Orthodontics

Star Education | @stareducationla

Sylvan Learning of Hermosa Beach | @sylvanlearninghermosa

Tomaro | @Tomaroarchitecture

Yearbook sales END this Friday, March 14th.

HVPTO does not order extra yearbooks. While some years we receive a few additional copies due to print over-run, we have no way of knowing how many books we might receive. The ONLY way to make sure your student gets their yearbook is to order it by March 14th.

Yearbooks are available at the HVPTO.com.

Need to know if you already ordered? Check HERE (list updated through March 8th).

Questions: yearbooks@hvpto.com

HVPTO YUMraisers are a delicious way to support our Hermosa schools so plan to skip dinner and join us at The Habit Burger Grill on Wednesday, March 19th from 4:00-9:00pm. The Habit will generously donate 20% of net sales to HVPTO. Just present this FLYER or show it on your smartphone when you checkout. You can also use the code GIVEBACK when placing your order at the in-restaurant kiosk, on the Habit Burger & Grill Mobile app, or at HabitBurger.com. Giving never tasted so good!

The Hermosa View, Vista & Valley PTO is accepting nominations for all executive board positions for the 2025-26 school year. 

If you or someone you know would like to be nominated, please fill out our online nomination form by Friday, April 4th.

Not interested in an Executive Board position but want to be involved? We have jobs, big or small. Come and help us make memories for our kids.

Questions: volunteers@hvpto.com

Spring forward into party mode with the first round of Flash Parties on sale now. Dads’ Italian Night on the Coast and A Hermosa Mom’s Guide to Intuitive Living sold out, but there’s still time to get in on the others: Brims & Bourbon · Nosotros Mixology · Flow & Sound · The Hilt & Jonata Wine Tasting

Buy now and put those extended daylight hours to good use partying it up with fellow HVS parents—and support our schools while doing so. A win-win for spring! 

And while we have you in a party state-of-mind…set a reminder for Wednesday, March 19th, 10am! It’s the Hearts of Hermosa: Boots on the Beach Gala on-sale date! Every year there is an incentive to buy your tickets on day one and we are especially “buck wild” for this year’s! Bless your heart if you miss this one—it’s sure to be the hottest hat in the (ahem) wild, wild west. 

Visit HBEF for more event details, and for the 411 on all things Hearts!

Do you own or work at a business interested in becoming a HBEF sponsor? Official HBEF Community Partners provide a great way to both support our schools and market your business to all of Hermosa Beach, including our engaged parents, teachers, and staff—especially heading into our annual gala event, Hearts of Hermosa!

Contact our Sponsorship Directors, Lauren Merriam & Peter Spragg, at sponsorship@hbef.org or visit HBEF for more info! 

The Hermosa Beach City School District is holding its monthly School Board meeting on Wednesday, March 12th at 6:00pm (closed Session starts at 5pm).

Meetings are held at Hermosa Beach City Council Chambers, located at 1315 Valley Drive, but are subject to change. These meetings are open and the public is welcome to attend.

School board meetings are broadcast live on Spectrum Cable Channel 8 and on Frontier Channel 31, as well as the District’s YouTube channel.

Project 4: The Original Recycler has wrapped up! We hope your families enjoyed it and are still leaning into the Nevelson spirit by creating art from all sorts of found items. Here is a great resource created by our local libraries in collaboration with YAA. TK & 4th grade: If your student missed this lesson, please reach out to YAArtHb@gmail.com to find out how to do a makeup lesson so that they can be included in the class EOY project.

A very sincere Thank You to everyone in this community who helped us with materials for The Original Recycler. Whether it was by sending found items into your classrooms, cutting many, many 6x9 cardboard pieces for all to use, or by peeking at the wishlist, we appreciate all the ways you support this program.

Docents

The next YAA workshop will be Tuesday March, 18th for Project 5: Layers of Abstraction. We will be honoring the art of Wassily Kandinsky. Double check and make sure your class is set with a lead. 3rd and 8th grade docents: this will be your EOY project. Stay tuned for ways we can help you get this project going. 

A BIG THANK YOU to the amazing Jessica Jacobs, RAA Event Chair, who created the star studded roster of guests and arranged the five assemblies and 12 classroom visits! Energy and enthusiasm was felt throughout all three campuses for a week of fun filled events!

Whether it was Bailey the Kings Mascot energizing the crowd, Daryl Evans imparting words of wisdom, NYT Bestselling author Adam Gidwitz captivating the crowd with his storytelling, a community leader inspiring our students to be a leader too, LA Rams Cheerleaders leading a cheer, or Mark Feuerstein imparting a message of being an upstander; we hope that your child came home with a fun story to tell about their assembly or classroom visit! Check out some photos capturing the fun HERE.

Thank you to our guests:

Actor, Writer, Producer & Director Mark Feuerstein 

Author June Sobel

Author Adam Gidwitz

Author Sabrina Cohen

HBPD Chief LeBaron and Officer Claudio

HB Librarian Genavieve Gualano

RBPD Officer Kyle Lofstrom 

LA County Lifeguard Drew Reyes

Voice Actors Dino Andrade, Jewels Jaselle, Queen Noveen, and Cesili Williams

LA Kings Mascot Bailey & the Ice Crew

LA Kings Color Commentator Daryl Evans

LA Rams Cheerleaders Bryan and Sam

HBCSD Superintendent Dr. Susan Wildes

Shout out and thank you to our HVS Librarians: Ms. Meyers, Ms.Hanley, and Ms. Tiaro for their selection of books for our guest readers to choose from!

Lastly, thank you to our classroom parent chaperones including: Lauren Romero, Grace Bonet, Cerita Grotts, Ashley Cevoli, Anna Kostecke, Sandra Ciccone, Dana Sands, Ashley Stumm, Kelley Rombro, Lauren Sprague, Kristan Kramer, Jo Fish, Jennifer Kucera and Laura Harris.

#PoweredByHVPTO

Hermosa Vista's 4th grade students were treated to an amazing Read Across America assembly with NYT Bestselling Author, Adam Gidwitz! Adam's engaging assembly blended humor, storytelling, and interactive elements which captivated his audience! 

Adam's assembly sparked many students' interest to read his books and {pages} has graciously extended their deadline to purchase his books through the link HERE. Order by Thursday, March 13th for delivery to the school. Or stop by {pages} at any time to purchase your Adam Gidwitz book! Any questions, please reach out to Jessica Jacobs.

#PoweredByHVPTO

HVPTO thanks everyone who went with the glow of a last-minute location change to attend the Silent Disco. The light drizzle proved to only add to the experience and everyone had a blast! Thank you to our Family Fun Night Chairs, Jen Kucera & Jo Fish, who kept it together even when the event had to pivot!

Many thanks to the following volunteers who also pitched in: Amy Papanikolas, Angelica Zavaleta, Belinda Oakes, Betina Mekhtarian, Bodie Oakes, Chandler Bondan, Denise Donahoe, Fabiana Lahmon, Gigi Moreno, Gregory Mekhtarian, Jackson Moreno-Davis, Jane Mancuso, Jeff Ackermann, Jonathan Lahmon, Julia Brown, Katiana Bozzi, Kennett Venable, Mary Swanhaus, Michael Zavaleta, Micki Marseglia, Penelope Anderson, Sonya Oliver, and Thomas Elder-Groebe!

The event was so much sweeter thanks to Virginia & Tom Dunbabin and the YAA team.

We appreciate the support of Ranchos Onsite Tacos and Creamy Boys and STAR Education for providing the wonderful glow swag and 360 booths. Lastly, World of Sound Productions was amazing!

Special thanks to Principal Overbeck and M&O hero, Ileana Chaidez, for being so accommodating of our last-minute location change to Vista. Seriously, you saved the day!

#PoweredByHVPTO

On March 4th, HBCSD proudly celebrated Maintenance & Operations (M&O) Workers Appreciation Day, honoring the remarkable team that tirelessly ensures our schools remain safe, functional, and welcoming for all students. If you missed this fun VIDEO, highlighting Ramon Sanchez from the Vista School M&O team, check it out to get a glimpse of why we are so lucky to have such an amazing M&O team.

HVPTO was delighted to celebrate the day by treating our View and Valley M&O teams to breakfast boxes and sweets while our Vista M&O staff received pizza, salad & cake lunch. THANK YOU M&O TEAM!

Also, thank you to Jo Fish and Jeff Ackermann for coordinating and delivering the goodies on behalf of HVPTO!

#PoweredByHVPTO

ALL ABOARD! RUHS Performing Arts proudly presents: HADESTOWN! Featuring 100 RUHS students on stage, backstage and in the orchestra! Journey down to the RUHS Auditorium March 21, 22, 28, & 29 at 7:00 pm and March 23 & 29 at 2:00 pm! Tickets can be purchased online at ruhsdrama.com for $10-20. Winner of 8 Tony Awards, this Best Musical winner pits industry against nature, doubt against faith, and fear against love.

Mira Costa Drama Tech students are excited to welcome TK - 5th grade thespians to spend a week at theatre camp from July 28th - August 1st! Campers will have fun exploring acting, singing, dancing, improv and more with some games and crafts sprinkled in! We can't wait to explore theatre with your camper this summer!  Click HERE to register or reach out to dramatechboosters@gmail.com with questions.