Education

Since playing to a 1-1 tie with Hampton Bays on March 12, Don McGovern's team defeated Wyandanch 4-0 on the 15th, shut out Shoreham-Wading River 4-0 on the 17th, and blanked Bayport-Blue Point 2-0 here Friday.

The March-April season has thus far gone swimmingly, at least as far as most of East Hampton High's teams are concerned, for the girls teams especially.

A former Ross School student and his father have filed a $10 million lawsuit in Suffolk Supreme Court alleging that the student was bullied, threatened, and verbally abused by Ross School faculty during and after an overseas field trip in 2020.

The East Hampton Library will offer kids a chance to learn about turtles and tortoises today, and starting Saturday, Bay Street Theater will host online storytelling sessions with a diverse lineup of children's authors, each at 10:30 a.m., for eight weeks.

Monday's Springs School budget workshop was the first time board members and the community at large got an up-close look at the preliminary budget number the district is wrangling with for its 2020-21 budget: $32.12 million. Nearly every time a school administrator pitched a budget increase in a particular area, board members raised some form of the question "Why?"

By now, it's an open secret: A single gathering of teens, reportedly held two weekends ago at a house in Sag Harbor and attended by students from multiple schools, has resulted in a spate of positive Covid-19 cases.

In the pandemic, dance competitions, school theater programs, and other creative opportunities were unceremoniously interrupted, as if a Band-Aid had suddenly been ripped off. But with the gradual improvement in Covid-19 statistics — a lower seven-day average positivity rate, for example — has come the return of performing arts programs. High school musical theater productions have resumed, albeit with many modifications in place, and groups like Our Fabulous Variety Show and the Neo-Political Cowgirls are also planning programs.

The Amagansett School Board on Tuesday voted to add two separate propositions to the May 18 budget ballot, one for renovating outdoor basketball courts, the other for technology and energy upgrades.

Two local school districts, Bridgehampton and Sagaponack, are searching for candidates for the role of superintendent. Both have announced surveys to solicit feedback and direction from their families and communities.

East Hampton's field hockey, soccer, volleyball, and cross-country teams were on the field, court, and course this week as a belated fall season got underway.

East Hampton High's boys soccer team, which was to have played at Wyandanch Monday, at Shoreham-Wading River Wednesday, and is to play here on Friday with Bayport-Blue Point, has shown itself to be a good one.

Joe McKee, who has been working hard to rebuild East Hampton High School's football program in recent years, was happy to take the field here Saturday afternoon with the first varsity team he's coached since the fall of 2016, as the untried Bonackers, who had only two weeks to get ready, faced Babylon.

The Bridgehampton School District is considered unique among South Fork schools for reasons such as its robust agricultural and robotics programs, its vaunted basketball traditions, free breakfasts and lunches for all children, and the personal attention its students get from teachers thanks to a favorable student-teacher ratio. This year it is also unique in that it is the only local district that will attempt to override the New York State-imposed cap on tax-levy increases.

Representative Lee Zeldin this week announced that the annual Congressional Art Competition is seeking entries from high school students. Entries are due on April 7.

The junior varsity team has begun a 10-day quarantine period after one of its players, a Pierson student who played in Saturday's game with Babylon's jayvee, tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend.

Educators view prekindergarten programs as important in boosting children's social and emotional skills and laying the foundations for academic success. For the 2021-22 school year, at least four local districts are planning to return or ramp up their pre-K offerings into full-day programs.

Local cultural centers and libraries, along with Project Most, have upcoming activities for kids and teens.

Most students on the South Fork have spring break coming up, so here are a few ideas for how they can pass the time with fun and educational activities.

Children at the Sag Harbor Elementary School recently collected 520 boxes of cereal to be donated to food pantries in Sag Harbor and Bridgehampton.

LTV, East Hampton Town's public access station, has announced a new scholarship program "to support community media and free speech." The scholarship is intended for students with a dedication to community, love of media, and belief that all people should have access to accurate and unfiltered information.

The McCoy Bus Company, which has taken Montauk School students back and forth from home to school for at least 25 years, will sell most of its fleet to the district at the end of this school year.

During a board of education budget workshop on Tuesday, Jack Perna, district superintendent and school principal, confirmed that the company will stop busing children in June.

Nomination petitions will be available starting tomorrow for school district residents who are interested in running for open board of education seats. Petitions can be picked up in person from most district clerks' offices, and some schools may even make them available for download on their respective websites.

The Springs School Board on Monday accepted donations from the Tyler Project and from Timothy Croak and Kevin Hogan of Ten Comm, a Long Island technology company.

The Sag Harbor School District has established a new holiday, Indigenous People's Day, on its 2021-22 academic calendar to provide an opportunity for students to learn about and celebrate the original inhabitants of the North American continent, who were here before explorers from Europe colonized America. The holiday will be marked on the calendar as the day before Thanksgiving, when schools are already closed.

The Parrish Art Museum's annual Student Exhibition, a 60-year tradition featuring the work of more than 1,000 young artists, begins tomorrow. More than 200 individual works by high schoolers, and another 70 or so group pieces by younger artists, nursery age on up, from schools across eastern Long Island, will be on view through April 18. Paintings, drawings, sculpture, and photography are featured.

Another round of workshops and academic assistance courses via Project Most’s School Vacation Learning Lab is open to kids as young as 4 years old through fifth graders over spring break, March 29 to April 2. 

Teen Creative Studio at Guild Hall
Through its Teen Arts Council, Guild Hall is offering a monthly creative studio program for high school students. It starts Tuesday with a virtual creative writing and spoken-word jam session with Andrina Wekontash Smith as the guest teaching artist. The program is from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and advance registration at guildhall.org is required. Future programs, including fashion up-cycling and candle-making, will be held in person.

The Sag Harbor School Board is expected to vote Monday on a 2021-22 school calendar that for the first time will include Indigenous People's Day in addition to Columbus Day. Juneteenth will also be officially added to the school calendar, as New York State has designated it an official holiday.

In a pandemic environment that has cost the school district more than $600,000 so far, and against the fiscal pressure of New York State's cap on tax levy increases, East Hampton school officials are holding the line on budget increases wherever possible as they develop their 2021-22 school spending plan.

The Springs School is weighing many moving parts as it develops its 2021-22 spending plan, with anticipated increases in areas such as school busing, custodial services, and bathroom and classroom updates.