Education

If all goes according to plan, by March 15 the vast majority of South Fork students between Montauk and Bridgehampton will be back in school in person, five days a week. The move by several local districts represents a shift back toward what school used to look like, but with the benefit of pandemic hindsight.

Need to find something for the kids to do? Here are some possibilities coming up.

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office is once again hosting the Say Something Essay Contest for high school students to highlight the importance of speaking up when a peer is distressed or at risk for self-harm.

The Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services is offering an online career workshop with a focus on cultivating a culturally and ethnically diverse community of teachers on the East End.

East Hampton School District officials on Tuesday said it is their goal to restore the full-day prekindergarten program at the John M. Marshall Elementary School. Those classes were reduced to half-days this year because of space restrictions made necessary by the pandemic. The proposed 2021-22 budget provides for such a program.

"The overall consensus from the prekindergarten team is that they would like to go back to full-day," said Karen Kuneth, the interim elementary school principal.

On the Ice
Katy's Courage, an organization dedicated to education, research, and support for pediatric cancer patients, will have an ice-skating fund-raiser at the Buckskill Winter Club in East Hampton on Saturday for kids ages 10 and up. There will be ice-skating lessons starting at 12:15 p.m., open skating sessions at 1:15 and 3, an ice show at 6, and a hockey game at 7:30 that night. Baked goods will be for sale all day. Tickets are $35 each, and Covid-19 restrictions make advance registration a must by calling 631-324-2243.

Project Most, a nonprofit organization that provides after-school, weekend, and summertime activities and enrichment programs for children in East Hampton and Springs, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support field trips.

The Springs School is now enrolling kindergarten students for the 2021-22 school year. Children who are 5 years old on or before Dec. 1 and live in Springs are eligible to sign up for the full-day program.

As Covid-19 case counts and positivity rates continue their general decline, East Hampton School District officials are expected to unveil plans next week to bring more students back for in-person learning.

During a budget workshop this week, Richard Burns, the district superintendent, said there will be a detailed discussion of the plans at a regular board meeting on Tuesday. It will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be live-streamed on YouTube by LTV. There will be an opportunity for community members to call in comments.

Avenues: The World School, a for-profit independent school that set up a small "studio" campus last summer at the Hampton Country Day Camp in East Hampton, this week announced that it will remain there for another school year.

Maxwell Gomberg, a ninth grader at the Bridgehampton School, recently put his love of computer technology to good use in a national coding contest. His team emerged the first-place winner on Jan. 31 at the competition's advanced level II.

East Hampton High School's boys basketball team was 2-1 in league play as of Tuesday, and 2-3 over all.

At the beginning of September, four South Fork college students talked with The East Hampton Star about their expectations and experiences so far attending school during the Covid-19 pandemic. One semester later, this is how it's going.

The Sag Harbor School District last week reported that costs for school busing, office administration, maintenance, utilities, and operations are increasing only marginally in its 2021-22 budget proposal. A senior school official also announced a target tax-levy increase of 1.5 percent, which is a smidge under the maximum that Sag Harbor would be allowed to enact under New York State's limits on tax levy increases.

A student art show, birdwatching, abstract drawing, and more activities coming up for kids and teens.

With the pandemic still upending normal life, East Hampton School District officials have made it clear they are taking seriously the mental health and academic needs of their students, quite literally putting their money where their mouths are.

For the third year in a row East Hampton High's boys swimming team won the League II meet, this one contested Saturday at Hauppauge High School, topping four teams — Hauppauge, West Islip, Sayville-Bayport-Blue Point, and Northport — that had defeated the 3-4 Bonackers in dual meet competition.

During the pandemic, physical education teachers here have jumped through some hoops in order to keep students safe while at the same time active.

It was pretty much good news all around for East Hampton High's active winter teams this past week. The swimmers, in their final home meet of the foreshortened season, defeated Lindenhurst 71-59, "exhibitioning" in the final two events so as not to run up a score; the boys track team here on Saturday defeated Rocky Point 50-45, and the girls, whose coach, Yani Cuesta, was still awaiting Rocky Point's long jump results as of Sunday, were leading 43-39.

A round of Covid-19 testing for East Hampton High School athletes and a more general testing session at the Springs School have turned up good results for both schools, officials announced this week.

The Amagansett School Board last week reviewed a second draft of next year's school budget, which is proposed at $11.9 million, up from this year's $11.37 million. If the district moves forward with the version presented, the year-over-year spending increase would be 4.7 percent.

Expressing concerns over the timeline of the district's major renovation and expansion project, the Springs School Board and administration on Monday postponed approving the official 2021-22 school calendar.

More activities for kids and teens from the folks at the East Hampton, John Jermain, and Montauk libraries.

Here's what's coming up for kids during the February school vacation.

"The district did not have to search far for an individual who is intelligent, hard-working, curriculum focused, dedicated, and always puts students first," Debra Winter, the district superintendent, said during Monday's school board meeting.

Sag Harbor's Board of Education, faced with a student petition to overturn a recent decision by the district superintendent, Jeff Nichols, not to let Pierson High student-athletes compete this winter in "high-risk" sports, once again seconded the superintendent at a meeting Monday night.

"Over the past few weeks, there has been a significant decrease in the number of high school students attending in-person," Brittany Carriero, the school principal, said in an email to families.

In the first of two rounds of Covid-19 testing at the Springs School, there were no positive results in the 55 people tested, the school district announced Monday.

Following the county's okay of certain "high-risk" school sports, East Hampton High's boys and girls basketball teams and Bridgehampton's boys team are set to play games, but East Hampton's wrestling team will work out only intramurally this year and will not compete with against other teams.

The East Hampton School Board on Tuesday approved its 2021-22 academic calendar. The first day of the next school year will be Sept. 8.