At 8:45 on Monday morning, Springs School students from kindergarten through fifth grade gathered in the gym in front of a large screen, which was connected to Skype. On the screen was Lisa Seff, their science teacher, reporting from Fairbanks, Alaska, where it was 4:45 a.m. and a bone-chilling minus 18 degrees.

“Mrs. Seff, did you see the aurora borealis?” asked a pupil.

Indeed she had — from the plane as it began its descent into Fairbanks International Airport.

“At first I thought I was looking at wisps of clouds in the sky,” Ms. Seff said. “Then suddenly, they were tinged with green and reds, and next everything erupted into a spectacular show of lights and colors around a shimmering green curtain.”

Ms. Seff is now back in Springs, where she has taught science for 17 years. Her weeklong sortie to Alaska was part of something called the PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) program, through which she will join other educators on an August expedition to the Arctic, her second such trip.

The PolarTREC program is funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Regions, and Springs School is one of only 12 schools in the country to have received this grant since grants were introduced in 2007.

The school was awarded its first in 2012, when Ms. Seff joined a PolarTREC research team on an expedition to Barrow, Alaska, to study endangered bowhead whales that congregate in a feeding hot spot off the coast. Ms. Seff found the study and its results enormously valuable in helping her charges in Springs understand the ecosystem that links atmosphere, ocean, plankton, and predators.

“Since we also live in a community surrounded by water, this information is vital for students to understand and appreciate,” she said at the time. She shared her findings by posting them online, even having her detailed journals from the trip translated into Spanish so the entire community could read them.

During that 2012 expedition, Ms. Seff met Carin Ashjian, a senior scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., whose special interest is the study of zooplankton in the polar region, which has been severely impacted by climate change. When Dr. Ashjian and her team applied once again for a PolarTREC grant — specifically, to study the food web and zooplankton in the Beaufort Sea, in the Arctic Ocean — she included Ms. Seff in her proposal.

And so, in August, the Springs teacher will trade a bathing suit for a down-filled parka and head to the Arctic once again.

“This will be a very different trip from my first one,” she said. “Whereas in 2012 we stayed on land and got on a boat each day to conduct our research, this time we’ll be living onboard a ship for four weeks.”

The ship happens to be the Sikuliaq, one of the newest and most advanced oceanographic research vessels in the world. Owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, the 261-foot ship is capable of breaking ice up to 2.5 feet thick. Ice breaking will be necessary even in August, as the Sikuliaq, carrying approximately 26 researchers and 26 support crew, heads to the Beaufort Sea, where the climate is severe and the waters frozen for most of the year. Historically, only a narrow pass of approximately 61 miles has opened in August and September, but recently the ice-free area of late summer has greatly expanded.

According to the PolarTREC website, the focus of the August study is to “explore and identify the mechanisms linking broad-scale atmospheric forcing, ocean physical response, prey-base condition and distribution, upper trophic level animal aggregations, and climate change along the Beaufort Shelf break.”

In other words, explained Ms. Seff, “we’ll be studying the feeding opportunities in the region for animals such as beluga whales, seabirds, and seals.”

As a schoolteacher, she received funding from PolarTREC for equipment and training for a journaling web platform, available onboard the Sikuliaq, that will not only link students with her activities in the field but also educate them about life onboard an oceangoing vessel and about the many career possibilities available on research expeditions.

Ms. Seff believes that teaching and learning become inherently spontaneous and student-centered when moved from the confines of the classroom into the world at large.

“There is simply no comparison,” she said. “Teaching kids from the field allows a teacher to blow the walls off the classroom by connecting them directly to authentic, real-time research. It gives them an inside view, something that’s very different from what a typical textbook can convey. It makes the learning experience for the students real.”

The East Hampton Town Police Department handled a record number of calls last year, just missing the 20,000 mark, according to the annual report released by Chief Michael D. Sarlo on Monday. The 19,889 calls logged by the department continued a trend going back three years. Police reported a record number of calls in 2014, only to see that record broken in 2015, and again last year.

Also up, though not a record, were total vehicle and traffic citations, 5,827, over 1,000 more than in 2015. “Officers worked extremely hard on maintaining a presence in high-accident areas or areas which receive high numbers of speeding complaints,” Chief Sarlo said.

In particular, he said, speeding tickets surged by about 60 percent, and tickets for distracted driving, such as cellphone use, increased by about 10 percent. The record for total vehicle and traffic law citations was set in 2008, at 6,050.

A notable area of quality-of-life improvement, particularly in Montauk, was a drop in noise complaints. Total summonses issued fell from 54 in 2015 to 13 last year, of which only 8 involved commercial establishments. Chief Sarlo credited increased cooperation between the management of nightclubs and bars, particularly in Montauk, and the police.

Over all, quality-of-life citations dropped slightly, from 1,320 to 1,189, still much higher than any other year.

The number of arrests for drunken driving has remained stable the past couple of years. There were 186 made last year, matching the total from 2014, and 187 in 2015. The most such arrests, 257, occurred in 2012.

The number of criminal arrests increased from 266 in 2015 to 321 last year. This number has fluctuated since 2000, when there were 362 arrests, a number matched in 2013. The total has remained above 300 every year except for 2015.

Parking summonses, which hit an all-time high of 8,631 in 2015, dropped to 7,588 last year, still the second highest ever.

Two of Chief Sarlo’s goals this year, he said, were to fine-tune the department’s new 12-hour shift schedule, and increase the number of officers and supervisors on the beat during peak call times. Those objectives are related. As of Jan. 1, the police force switched from five squads rotating through eight-hour shifts to four squads in schedules, meaning that more officers will be available for assignment at any one time.

The department and the Police Benevolent Association will sit down at the end of the year and evaluate the new schedule, Chief Sarlo said, with an eye on the “permanent implementation for 2018 and beyond.”

While pledging to await East Hampton Town Trustee opinion before taking action, the members of the East Hampton Town Board, at a work session on Feb. 7, were generally in favor of amending the town code regulations on beach driving, as outlined by Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney. On Monday, however, when the trustees, who have jurisdiction over most of the beaches in town, discussed the proposal, they decided, in turn, to confer with others before taking a stand. Some of the trustees were in favor of the town’s proposal; others were adamantly opposed to it, fearing a slippery slope that could result in the loss of beach-driving privileges.

As the law stands now, resident permits are free and have no expiration date; nonresident permits expire on Dec. 31 each year and cost $275. The revelation that more than 30,000 resident beach-driving permits have been issued since 2000, a number that is greater than the town’s population, sparked the town board’s discussion. The stickers, which are affixed to four-wheel-drive vehicles, were last updated in 2000.

“It’s time we make a change,” Town Councilman Fred Overton, who previously was town clerk, said at the Feb. 7 meeting. New stickers were issued in 2000 in an attempt to avoid nonresidents’ acquiring them when buying a vehicle with a sticker issued to a resident. “If you sell to a private owner, he’s not going to scrape that sticker off. He’s going to take advantage of it and use it whether he’s eligible for it or not,” Mr. Overton said.

An amendment to the town code has apparently been under discussion for some time. The proposed code amendment drafted by Mr. Sendlenski provides for annual resident permits to expire on Feb. 1 of the following year. But Carole Brennan, the town clerk, said a Jan. 1 expiration date would be more workable, both for her office and for enforcement officers. “We can make that change,” Mr. Sendlenski said.

Board members, however, preferred a longer term, and Ms. Brennan agreed. “You could say five years. What would happen in five years is the color would change,” she said, referring to the idea of color-coding the stickers so that marine patrol and enforcement officers could easily recognize whether they are valid.

There are three options, Supervisor 30,000 permits out there and try to shorten the time frame so that permits are issued more frequently. . . . Or, you simply void all permits outstanding, and issue the permits for a period of time.” Permits could expire in three or five years, or at a time to be determined. “It’s really a question of what’s the best way to administer these,” he said.

A term longer than one year would be easier on the clerk, Mr. Overton said, suggesting three years. Ms. Brennan agreed that an annual permit “is definitely going to add more work when everybody has to come in and get it,” but she said she would defer to the board. “If it’s five years, that’s good with me, too,” she said.

An amendment would be unlikely to take effect before 2018, Mr. Cantwell said, and he repeated the assurance that the trustees’ opinion would be sought.

 One had already spoken out. Diane McNally, who was formerly the clerk of the trustees, criticized the proposed legislation at the town board session, calling it “fuel for the fire of those who seek to limit access to beaches.”

Ms. McNally continued that line of attack at the trustees’ meeting Monday, referring to parallel lawsuits in which private property owners on Napeague had sought to establish ownership of two stretches of the ocean beach that are popular among a group of residents who drive and park there. The town and the trustees won the lawsuits last year, but the plaintiffs apparently are considering an appeal, while the trustees are facing ongoing, similar lawsuits.

“If we start from square one,” she asked her colleagues, “what is going to be that magic number . . . when the anti-beach-vehicle folks say you’ve issued too many? That has always been the problem.”

Every resident “should have access to that beach,” Ms. McNally said. “I would urge you, think about this very carefully, get some data. We just won the beach case. Why are we going backwards here?”

The trustees agreed to seek opinions from user groups and the public before taking a position.

East Hampton will not take an enhanced role in enforcing immigration laws, Supervisor Larry Cantwell told a packed meeting room at Town Hall on Thursday night.

The town, Mr. Cantwell said, will not ask the Department of Homeland Security to authorize its police officers to take people into custody solely for immigration violations. Last month, President Trump issued an executive order instructing the federal officials to deputize local jurisdictions for that purpose, should they request it.

We understand how the immigrant community is an important part of our economy and our culture, and we intend to respect that.”

— East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell

The town will not change its policies, Mr. Cantwell said. In cases involving criminal activity or deportation orders, police will continue to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But, he said, “We do not seek out illegal immigrants in the process of law enforcement.”

“We ask for a separation of immigration and local law enforcement in all ways legal and possible,” Minerva Perez of the Organizacion Latino Americana, an advocacy group, told the town board.

“We are aware of the changes in federal immigration policy and the confusion from it, as well as the fear caused by it,” Mr. Cantwell said.

A number of people who might be affected by the increased federal push on immigration enforcement were reportedly too fearful to attend Thursday's meeting.

Several speakers urged town officials to take proactive steps to ease growing worries among East Hampton’s immigrant population, and to make it very clear just when and why someone's immigration status would be checked, or an undocumented immigrant be subject to deportation.

“Help us to bring down the levels of fear,” Ms. Perez asked.

Mr. Cantwell said town officials, including Police Chief Michael Sarlo, were consulting federal and state officials, including the office of the New York State Attorney General, about the changing immigration policy.

“We’re evaluating impacts on people who live and work here in town,” he said. “I think all of us feel an obligation to the community. All of us as individuals have a responsibility to reassure people that we know that it’s going to be okay,  that we’re going to help them. . . . We understand how the immigrant community is an important part of our economy and our culture, and we intend to respect that.”

“Communities are built on trust,” said Daniel Hartnett, a social worker for the East Hampton School District. “We need to trust our institutions, especially the police. Let’s build our protocols on that.”

“East Hampton has always been a town of good neighbors,” said Betty Mazur, an Amagansett resident. “Perhaps we can call this, in an official way, a ‘good neighbor town.' ”

The town board could then issue a public statement to that effect, she said, “to indicate to our good neighbors what it is they can expect from the town and from all of us as good neighbors.”

Update, Feb. 21, 9:19 a.m.: The former president of the Sag Harbor School Board, who has been accused of allowing teens to drink alcohol at her North Haven house, should never have been charged, her attorney, Daniel G. Rodgers of Southampton, said Sunday.

Susan E. Guinchard Kinsella, 54, was arrested by Southampton Town police on Friday after a three-week investigation into a party held by her daughter at their Barclay Drive residence on Jan. 27. According to police, they could see youths inside the house consuming beverages when they arrived that night, but Ms. Guinchard Kinsella did not allow them to enter it.

Police reported that they stayed in the area and interviewed teens as they exited the house. The arrest occurred after a follow-up investigation. Ms. Guinchard Kinsella was charged with a misdemeanor under the Suffolk County Social Host Law, which prohibits any adult who "controls a private residence to knowingly allow the consumption of alcohol or alcoholic beverages by any minor."

Mr. Rodgers said the word "knowingly" was key to a misdemeanor charge. "To establish or suggest a violation of the Social Host law," he said, "they have to prove that the defendant had knowledge" that alcohol was being consumed. "This came as a complete shock to her."

"This is a woman who cares deeply about young people," he said, noting that his client also is a former head of the Sag Harbor PTA. "Her service to her community ends up being a negative, rather than a plus," he said, asking whether her status in the area influenced the charge.

She is due to be arraigned in Southampton Town Justice Court on March 10.

Originally, Feb. 18, 12:42 p.m.: Police, tipped off by an anonymous call about a party at which teens allegedly were drinking alcohol, have charged Susan E. Guinchard Kinsella with violating the Suffolk County Social Host Law, which holds adults accountable if they knowingly allow underage drinking.

According to Southampton Town police, on Jan. 27, when they arrived at the residence on Barclay Drive to which state police had referred them, they saw teens consuming alcoholic beverages "within the residence." When Ms. Guinchard Kinsella came to the door, "she denied there was a party, and subsequently locked the police out of the residence," the police report says. Officers, however, stayed in the area to investigate.

The investigation took several weeks. She was arrested at her home on Friday. She was issued an appearance ticket, and will be arraigned March 10 at Southampton Town Justice Court, Sgt. Carl Schottenhamel said Saturday.

Ms. Guinchard Kinsella is the former president of the Sag Harbor School Board. She did not respond to a message requesting comment.

Barclay Drive is in a gated community known as West Banks. The call to state police came in on an anonymous tip line, 866-UNDER21, set up to encourage reporting of events at which minors are thought to be consuming drugs and alcohol.

The tip about drinking at the Barclay Drive residence was received two days before a party at a Neck Path house in Springs where an 18- year-old former East Hampton High School student, Jordan Johnson, overdosed. He survived but is paralyzed and undergoing rehabilitation in Manhattan.

Capt. Chris Anderson of the East Hampton Town Police Department has said an active investigation is underway to determine what happened that night, while at the same time East Hampton parents have met to explore solutions.

The owner of the house in which an East Hampton teenager overdosed last month was arrested last Thursday on unrelated charges. It has been alleged that the young man’s condition was ignored for the next 12 hours.

Jefferson Davis Eames, who owns the house at 151 Neck Path in Springs where Jordan Johnson, 18, overdosed on Jan. 29, was arrested as he was appearing in East Hampton Town Justice Court in answer to numerous charges stemming from previous arrests, all within the last few months. Town police said they had checked video footage of a Feb. 7 incident in the parking lot of Barnes Country Market in Springs, showing a vehicle leaving the lot after striking another car, and determined that Mr. Eames was the driver of the vehicle, who fled. He is to be arraigned on the latest charge today.

Mr. Eames’s teenage daughter was picked up by Suffolk County Child Protective Services on Friday night, according to a source who requested anonymity but said the girl’s mother had told her of it. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Mr. Eames himself wrote that his daughter “is in a girls’ home. I’m trying to get her out.” Local parents allege the girl organized the party at which Mr. Johnson overdosed. His right side remains paralyzed, the result of a condition known as toxic leukoencephalopathy.

His mother, Christine Moran, said Tuesday that the drug responsible was morphine. In addition to the paralysis, Mr. Johnson has lost motor skills throughout his body, she said. He is at the Rusk Rehabilitation Institute at New York University-Langone Medical Center in Manhattan. 

A three-hour fund-raiser in support of his rehabilitation, which his mother said could take six months or longer, is to be held at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett on March 19. Ms. Moran described his progress to date as “awesome.”

Mr. Eames’s recent string of arrests began on Sept. 22, when he was charged with operating an uninsured, unregistered vehicle. On Nov. 22, he was charged with D.W.A.I., driving with ability impaired by drugs, as well as unlicensed driving. Twelve days later, he was hit with another misdemeanor charge of unlicensed driving. Then, on New Year’s Day, the same officer who arrested him on the drug-related charge reportedly spotted him driving again. Knowing his license was suspended, she tried to pull him over, but he sped off, police said, leading to a pursuit at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour. He was charged in the end with fleeing a police officer, unlicensed driving, and reckless driving, along with at least two dozen moving violations.

Other charges against Mr. Eames remain open in Riverhead Town Justice Court, where they were moved after both East Hampton justices recused themselves. That case alleges crimes stemming from a 2015 road rage incident that involved the wife of an East Hampton town police officer. 

Mr. Eames, in turn, has sued both the town and the police in federal court, alleging violations of his constitutional rights stemming from that arrest, as well as an earlier one also involving road rage. The federal case will likely not be heard until the Riverhead case is decided.

Homebuyers in the Town of South­ampton will need to obtain updated certificates of occupancy if the town board moves forward with a proposal that would mandate it. 

Lawyers often recommend that buyers get an updated C of O before closing, and some lenders require it, but the current town code does not. In response to a suggestion from the town attorney’s office, town officials — looking, among other things, for illegal apartments and similar code violations — are considering amending the code. The amendment would ensure that an inspection take place before the sale.

The latest draft of the legislation, last discussed during a public hearing on Feb. 14, allows for some exceptions. If a property is moved from an individual’s name to a partnership’s, or changes hands for estate purposes, an updated C of O would not be required. 

According to the town attorney’s office, the villages of Southampton, Sag Harbor, North Haven, Westhampton Beach, and East Hampton already have this law on the books, with no exemptions. The Town of East Hampton does not have the requirement.

Southampton Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said he looks at the proposal as a “consumer protection bill.” People buying properties without a C of O can find themselves responsible for bringing it up to code, he said, often an expensive process. One new owner, for example, discovered his lot had been overcleared and had to spend $50,000 to revegetate. 

Councilwoman Christine Scalera, who is an attorney, said “the intent was good,” in that the law would bring properties into compliance. However, she said, she is concerned about unintended consequences and wants the Southampton Business Alliance to weigh in. 

Sheryl Heather, executive director of the alliance, said yesterday that the matter was under review. “On face value, the proposal looks like a good consumer protection plan, and on face value it looks good for local business, as it will give work to tradespeople doing home repairs or upgrades,” she said. “But we’re taking a close look at what might be hidden or unintended negative consequences.”

An updated certificate of occupancy costs $200. Leonard Marchese, the town comptroller, said yesterday that an additional $250,000 was included in the 2017 budget in anticipation of its becoming law.

One issue, according to Kathryn Garvin, the town attorney handling the proposal, is that there is no provision for enforcement. If the law is violated, there is no fine or punishment. “Let’s say I sold my house to you,” she said. “The town does not find out about the transfer of property for months.” (Only the seller has the right to request an updated C of O.) “By the time that happens, you own the property. If I didn’t get an updated certificate of occupancy, the town can’t do anything to me, because I don’t own it anymore.” 

Part of the legislation’s intent, she said, is to help buyers demand an updated C of O from sellers reluctant or unwilling to provide one.

Ms. Scalera also raised concerns about the proposed exemption for partnerships. “I don’t think we should be encouraging that kind of transfer that shields and hinders prosecution,” she said, suggesting that the legislation should be crafted not only to protect buyers, but also to strengthen the code.

“I would want to look at that exemption a little more closely,” she told the town board at last week’s meeting.

One Water Mill resident said that the new law would affect everyone. “There’s no wider net you can cast,” he said. “I know we’re all immortal, but at some point in the game, we’re going to sell those homes.” He objected to the proposal, which he called anti-homeowner, saying it was more an insurance policy than anything. “I don’t think my town should be in the insurance business,” he said, adding that any difficulties should be resolved between the buyer and the seller. “This is a solution in search of a problem.” 

The proposal has the support of the Building Department, which could be tasked with as many as 1,000 new inspections annually. At least one resident has complained that backlog in the building inspector’s office could delay inspections, which would then delay closings, jeopardizing sales and creating a hardship for the seller. 

Mr. Schneiderman said the chief building inspector has indicated he has adequate staff to handle the extra workload. 

John Bouvier, a town board member, said the town had received mixed responses, and he too wanted more time to study the proposal.

The public hearing was adjourned until March 28, when the board will meet at 6 p.m. at the Hampton Bays Senior Citizen Center.

Reports this morning that a “Russian spy ship” was patrolling near Long Island set off a firestorm on social media, but a representative for the United States Coast Guard, who spoke with The Star around noon, said citizens had no reason to be alarmed.

The presence yesterday of the Viktor Leonov some 70 miles off the coast of Delaware was first reported on Fox News, which linked the ship’s movements to other seeming aggressions by Russia, including Russia’s deployment of banned ground-based cruise missiles.

Fox News updated its story today, reporting that the Viktor Leonov had moved farther north up the coast; it quoted an unnamed U.S. government official, who said the ship was “loitering” some 30 miles south of Groton, Conn. CBS News and other outlets published stories on the ship’s movements this morning, and the story exploded on the East End and around the country.

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, which is home to Naval Submarine Base New London, at Groton — a primary homeport for the submarine force, including nuclear submarines — expressed concern on Twitter that the ship’s movements were evidence that Russia was testing its “limits of reach.”

Russia is acting like it has a permission slip to expand influence, test limits of reach. Questions are obvious: does it, and if so, why? https://t.co/6Hsm7T2GO2

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 15, 2017

The vessel in question is a Meridian class intelligence-collecting ship built in the 1980s, part of Russia’s Northern Fleet, based in the Barents Sea.

For those watching this news unfold from the East End, it was immediately apparent that a location some 30 miles due south of Groton or New London would put the Russia vessel nearly in the surf off Napeague.

In a phone call, Ensign Rodion Mazin, the command duty officer at the Coast Guard’s Sector Long Island Sound, read an official statement on the matter: “We are aware of a Russian federation flag vessel that is transiting in international waters off the East Coast of the United States, and we are aware of all other vessels approaching the U.S. waters.”

Ensign Mazin said the ship had not entered U.S. territorial waters, which begin 12 nautical miles offshore. “The Coast Guard respects freedom of exercise by all nations beyond the territorial sea of the coastal United States,” the statement continued, “which is consistent with the international law."

While Ensign Mazin was unable to confirm the current location of the Russian ship, he said the Coast Guard is coordinating with other federal agencies, and the Viktor Leonov is under no requirement to notify the U.S. of its location.

“We have no concerns, Coast Guard-wise,” he said, adding that the public can go to marine traffic mapping sites such as marinetraffic.com and see "thousands of boats out there along the shoreline . . . tankers and commercial vessels . . . military vessels of different states. That's where they are allowed to be."

It is not unusual, he said, for international ships to be near our coastline, and it is not a concern.

The coast guard does not monitor submarine movements. 

Sag Harbor School District voters officially ended the village's long-running “turf wars” Wednesday night by approving a revised proposal for an all-natural grass field at Pierson Middle-High School. The final tally was 458 to 73.

The original $1.62 million allocated for a synthetic turf field was rejected in a December 2016 vote, after a divisive battle between environmental advocates in the community and others who believed synthetic turf was necessary for improved athletics.

Wednesday's vote approved the reallocation of about $1.6 million of the original sum, for a grass field, a practice field, and a new multipurpose playing area at the elementary school.

Kevin Chabla, a 13-year-old eighth grader at the Springs School, was a runner-up at a Long Island Regional Scripps Spelling Bee at Hofstra University on Sunday. It was the first time he competed in the tournament.

At the school board meeting on Monday evening, Kevin, who attended with his parents, was honored for his achievement. Christine Cleary, the school’s assistant principal, told the school board and community members that Springs School was “extremely proud and fortunate to have a student like Kevin.”

While in seventh grade, Kevin had approached Ms. Cleary with a proposal to begin a spelling bee tradition at the school with the goal of competing in regional and national contests.

“Sure,” Ms. Cleary told Kevin that day, and  “I told Kevin to do the research and go for it,” she said.

Instead, Kevin returned a few weeks later with a thick binder detailing his plan for getting to the Hofstra competition this year, on Feb. 12. It took over 12 months of intense preparation. Kevin said he had devoted most of his time at lunch and recess — and hundreds of hours after school — to taking quizzes with the help of his family. He created lists of words and their origins, then broke them down into categories, and he filed over 1,000 words according to their usage. He studied words rooted in Greek and Latin and read profusely, something he said he had loved since he was very young.

While the competition at Hofstra was tough, Kevin said he felt a certain excitement and pride at being one of the last two contestants  on stage during the tournament. Although as runner-up he did not qualify to compete in the National Spelling Bee later this year in Washington, D.C., he called the experience “a highlight.”

He plans to go to East Hampton High School next year but has informed Ms. Cleary that he would like to come back to Springs to be a mentor and help coach future spelling bee contestants.

The word that stumped Kevin at Hofstra? “Caudal,” Kevin said. “Meaning of or like a tail.”

For the record, this writer had never heard of it.