La Fondita, a take-out taqueria, has opened in Amagansett in the former Hampton Chutney space, next to Art of Eating's catering headquarters. Tacos, enchiladas, burritos, quesadillas, and tostadas fill the menu and are priced from $2.50 to $6. Fresh fruit juices, Mexican beers, desserts, and daily specials are available as well.

The eatery is the newest venture of Jeff Salaway and Mark Smith, the restaurateurs responsible for Rowdy Hall and Nick & Toni's. Humberto Guzman, a native of Tampico, Mexico, who worked at Nick & Toni's for several years, is manning the kitchen, and Joseph Realmuto is the executive chef. La Fondita will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, except Mondays, until Memorial Day, when the hours will be expanded.

Bostwick's in East Hampton, with one of the finest sunset views in town, is offering a three-course special for $23.95 nightly between 5:30 and 6 p.m.

The Coast Grill in Noyac now opens for the weekend on Thursdays and will present an East End lobster bake that evening beginning at 5. For $20, diners will get a whole steamed lobster, potatoes, corn, clams, and mussels.

At Estia's Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor and the original Estia in Amagansett, Wednesday and Thursday are prix fixe nights, with specials offered for $18.95

Early birds will get a salad, entree, and dessert starting at $12 at Cafe on Main in Amagansett between 5 and 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays through Tuesdays.

Popular in New York City, Mark Israel's Doughnut Plant doughnuts are now available in East Hampton at the Brown Bag Food Company, next to the East Hampton Cinema on Main Street.

Palmer Vineyards in Aquebogue will have a yard sale on Saturday and Sunday featuring discounts of 20 to 50 percent on selected wines. The winery, which offers free self-guided tours, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Silvia Lehrer will present a class on working with phyllo at Cookhampton in Water Mill on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The class will cover phyllo's history as well as tips and techniques for baking with it successfully. A variety of fillings will be prepared, and the resulting dishes served for lunch. The cost is $75. Preregistration is required.

Jack Mazzola’s organic fair-trade coffee company has expanded into roomier quarters in Amagansett Square, making way for what the former daytime soap star turned coffee king hopes will become “the social club of Amagansett.” The space at the edge of Main Street formerly occupied by another Sylvester & Co. store has been transformed with what Mr. Mazzola calls a “vintage nautical” theme, in which driftwood, maps, and found objects accent the walls.

Mr. Mazzola’s own photo collages, which consist primarily of images of Montauk, are for sale, and shelf space is brimming with Jack’s Coffee mugs, hats, and other merchandise.

Nearly a decade ago, Mr. Mazzola patented his stir-brew coffee machine, which makes his Central American blends less bitter, as they are oxygenated while brewing, he said. He has committed himself to selling fair-trade coffee exclusively .

“It’s been very trendy, supporting sustainability,” he said during a flurry of excitement as workers moved the pieces of his store from its former digs in the nook beside Randy Lerner’s Meeting House restaurant. But Mr. Mazzola’s passion for sustainable living sprouted long before the trend, he said. To that end, he and Mr. Lerner, who owns the square, share a common vision.

Soups and sandwiches made in the kitchen of the Meeting House will be served to go at Jack’s, where increased counter space has made way for a sandwich press and what will be an organic juice bar.

The plan is to serve the juices “bottled in our own packaging.” A selection of oatmeal, millet, and other warm breakfasts will round out the morning menu, which already includes muffins, cookies, and pastries made by bakers from here and New York City.

Mr. Mazzola’s flagship store on Greenwich Avenue expanded first with satellite locations in other parts of Manhattan, and he set up shop in the square in July. He will oversee operations of his other stores from a loft office overlooking the floor of the Amagansett store.

From the moment he opened the first shop, “we were overwhelmed. It was surprising how welcoming the community was, and to discover customers and friends from New York,” who spend time on the South Fork in the summer, he said.

By next season, Mr. Mazzola hopes to have started his “Reggae Jams at Jack’s,” and other live shows and films. He has been in conversations with a D.J. from New York and promised that the Sunday afternoon sessions would include $5 lobster rolls from Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett.

In the meantime, Mr. Mazzola is in something of a nesting phase, shifting around furniture and decorations, and planning for the future. “It was basically just a white canvas,” when he moved in, he said on Monday, gesturing to a cork board he had set up for community postings. An alcove that would soon be home to a selection of newspapers and magazines might also double as a stage for live entertainment.

By summer, a table he sees as a “fruit stand” might be transformed into a farmers marketplace — “we’ll use as much organic as we can,” he said.

With tables and counters to sip at and a new selection of foods, “what I look forward to in the future is foodies, musicians, first dates, fathers and sons after baseball games,” all meeting in what he calls “the nerve center” of Jack’s Coffee. Spending more time than ever here and at his house in Springs, “I’m considering this home,” he said.

It’s a pity this is the only time of year we start to think about cranberries. Chances are, the only time any of us eat them is in their canned or jellied form, courtesy of Ocean Spray, at our Thanksgiving feasts.

This is a pity because fresh cranberries are delicious and healthful (they’re one of the super fruits, folks!) and can be incorporated in many more dishes and relishes all year round. They can also be found in some local bogs throughout the Walking Dunes on Napeague.

Cranberries are low, creeping evergreen shrubs or vines. They have small evergreen leaves with dark-pink flowers, then white berries, which ripen to red. Native Americans used cranberries as food, arrow-wound poultices, and dye for rugs and blankets. They mixed cranberries into “pemmican,” a dried, preserved meat mixture that was kept fresh longer by the acidic qualities of the berries.

They called the berries “sassamanash” and introduced them to the English settlers in Massachusetts, who incorporated them into the first Thanksgiving meals. A Revolutionary War veteran by the name of Henry Hall is credited with being the first to farm cranberries, in Dennis, Mass., around 1816.

Cranberries are a unique fruit. They can grow and survive only under special conditions, requiring an acid peat soil, adequate fresh water supply, sand, and an eight-month growing season. Contrary to popular belief, they do not grow in water; they grow on vines in impermeable beds layered with sand, peat, gravel, and clay. If the vines are undamaged, they can survive indefinitely. Some vines in Massachusetts are 150 years old.

The cranberry probably got its name from Dutch and German settlers who called it “craneberry.” When the vines bloom in late spring and the flowers’ pink petals twist back, they resemble the head and bill of a crane. Over time, the name was shortened to cranberry.

Most cranberries are grown in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Canada. Ninety-five percent of the crops are used for juice and jellies; only five percent is sold fresh.

In the 1800s, English visitors were impressed with the cranberry sauces served with various game and fowl. A visiting French delegate, however, had a different impression. In a memorandum dated 1808, he referred to “a most villainous of sauces, cranberry sauce, vulgarly called ‘cramberry’ sauce from the voracious way they eat it.”

Cranberries store well for a number of reasons. One is their high acidity, exceeded only by lemons and limes. Another is their very high content of phenolic compounds, some of which are antimicrobial and probably protect the fruit in its damp habitat. Many of these phenolic materials are also useful to us, some as antioxidants and others as antimicrobials.

A particular pigment, also found in blueberries, prevents bacteria from adhering to various tissues in the human body and so helps prevent urinary tract infections. Cranberries are also rich in vitamin C and pectin, which is why a barely cooked sauce gels almost immediately. They can even cause alcohol to gel when macerated in it.

We have learned that fresh and dried berries, as well as juice, are very good for you. Don’t bother with extracts and pills, however, as they don’t retain much nutritional value. Be aware also of the sugar content in juices, and try to find unsweetened, dried cranberries.

To enjoy fresh cranberries year round, freeze them on cookie sheets, then place them in plastic bags that keep them well frozen for at least nine months. Try them in apple crisps and pandowdies, chutneys, and sauces.

For the adventurous foragers among you, there will be the 11th Annual Cranberry and Dunes Hike on Nov. 20, a Saturday, at 10 a.m., brought to you by the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society. Meet at the end of Napeague Harbor Road, prepared with rubber boots and a bucket or plastic bag for your harvest of this lovely, healthy, late-fall fruit.

Among the 51 young artists honored for outstanding work in the Parrish Art Museum’s 2019 Student Exhibition in Water Mill were more than a dozen from high schools in Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, and East Hampton. 

The judge selecting the winners was Neill Slaughter, a painter and retired professor of visual arts at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus, who presented the awards with the museum’s director, Terrie Sultan, at a reception on Saturday.

The seniors recognized from East Hampton High School included Rachel Osborne (drawing/illustration), Sarah Tilstra (painting), and Jennifer Villacis Zeas (printmaking). Zane Musnicki received an honorable mention for the Art Spirit Foundation’s Pastel Award. 

Other seniors receiving awards of excellence were Will Grossman (drawing/illustration), Lucas Woelk (painting), Sophia Borzilleri (photography), and Carly Browngardt (photography) from Pierson High School, and Pierce Houghton (mixed media), Luna Wang (photography), and Jensen Rowen (printmaking) from the Ross School. 

Underclassmen named among the 11 Ones to Watch were Miles Clark, a Bridgehampton High School 10th grader, and three 11th graders from East Hampton High School, Jennifer Calle, Han Le, and Andy Ngo. 

The Student Exhibition, which closed on Sunday, included individual and collaborative works by more than 1,000 students.

Teen Film Festival

Teen filmmakers will have after-hours access to the East Hampton Library on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. to begin working on projects for a teen film festival there on March 29. Participants can work individually or in teams with their own equipment. 

The library will offer college application help in half-hour sessions on Monday from 5 to 7 p.m. Appointments are required, as there is space for only four students. 

Little handprints will become baby chicks in a story time and art workshop for ages 3 and up next Thursday at 4 p.m. Sign-up is at the children’s desk or online. 

Irish Soda Bread

Irish soda bread will be on the menu for families on Saturday after children learn to make it in a cooking class at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. The class is for kids 3 to 6, who will have fun mixing, kneading, shaping, and baking the bread. The class begins at 10 a.m. and costs $20, which includes museum admission, or $7 for museum members. Advance registration is required. 

At the Montauk Library, kids in fourth grade and up can learn to make Irish soda bread in a free workshop at 2 p.m. Advance registration is also required for this one.

“The Fairy Tailor”

The next puppet show in the Goat on a Boat series at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor will be Sarah Nolen Puppets’ “The Fairy Tailor” on Saturday at 11 a.m. It is the story of a tailor who “transforms everyday garments into extraordinary characters, and shares stories of bravery, from ‘Little Red Riding Hood(ie)’ to ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes,’ ” according to the Goat website. Tickets cost $15 at goatonaboat.org.

The Springs School District is projecting a $1.067 million increase in its budget for the 2019-20 school year over this year, its business administrator, Michael Henery, told the school board during its second budget workshop meeting on Monday.

Mr. Henery said the biggest portion of the budget’s growth is due to wage and salary increases contained in newly renegotiated contracts with teachers and custodians. The school also pays an outside contractor for school bus service because of a shortage of drivers. That cost is projected to rise 8.5 percent next year.

The district is also budgeting for a decrease of $34,000 in charter school transitional aid from the state. “That is a big hit for us,” said the superintendent, Debra Winter.

As a result, Mr. Henery said, the preliminary budget he presented Monday would require a 3.25-percent tax levy increase, the maximum allowable. The Springs School has never exceeded the state-mandated cap, Mr. Henery said, and the district does not expect to do so next year, even if the budget is expected to increase from $28.8 million to $29.94 million for 2019-20.

“To achieve these goals with our limited revenue sources is, to say the least, challenging,” Mr. Henery told the board. “We’re trying to shave where we can.”

Looking forward, Ms. Winter said the school district also wants to realize future budget savings when it is able to renegotiate the amount it pays to send students to East Hampton High School. That contract expires next year. 

Ms. Winter said she and the board president, Barbara Dayton, already have been in ongoing conversations with the East Hampton district’s current leadership about reducing the nonresident tuition rate that East Hampton charges the Springs district to send its high school-age students there. The Springs School has only kindergarten through eighth-grade students. Its prekindergartners attend a half-day program at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center.

Ms. Winter said she would not rule out approaching the Bridgehampton or Sag Harbor School Districts about taking Springs students if talks with East Hampton do not result in the savings the Springs district would like. She said the district is also exploring if it qualifies to have its costs reduced under the state’s Seneca Falls formula, which allows districts to calculate the nonresident per-pupil charge based on the cost of educating a student over their kindergarten through 12th-grade years. Such districts around the state see savings of as much as 5 to 15 percent, Ms. Winter said.

Parrish Community Day

A community day at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill on Sunday will include art workshops and tours, scavenger hunts, readings for children, a drum circle, and refreshments. Admission to the museum will be free all day, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Families can explore the 2019 Student Exhibition at any time; community activities will take place between noon and 3 p.m. 

Jerome Liggon will lead a drum workshop at 12:30 p.m. At 1:30, Ellen

Weinstein, an illustrator, will read from her children’s book “Yayoi Kusama: From Here to Eternity.” Ongoing workshops throughout the afternoon will include ink printing with Madolin Archer, a museum educator, paper sculpture with the artist Virva Hinnemo, and collage making with Ms. Weinstein, inspired by the work of the Japanese artist who is the subject of her book. 

Short tours of the student show and of “Every Picture Tells a Story,” an exhibition of works from the museum’s permanent collection, will be offered through the afternoon.  

In other activities at the museum, a pottery workshop for children 7 and older will start on Saturday from 1:30 to 3 p.m. With Wendy Gottlieb, students will learn hand-built pottery techniques and work on the potter’s wheel each Saturday through March 30. The cost is $120, $90 for members. The class is limited to eight participants.

Youth Auditions at Bay Street

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor has put out the call for young actors to audition for its 2019 Mainstage production of Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun.” The theater is looking to fill the roles of Annie’s sisters, Nelli, a girl 13 or older, and Jessie, who is 15 or older. The role of Little Jake, Annie’s brother, will be filled by a boy 8 to 10 years old. 

Auditions will be held on Wednesday from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at Bay Street. Actors should prepare one song with 32 bars of music; an accompanist will be on hand. Sarna Lapine will direct the production, Sarah O’Gleby is the choreographer, and Andy Einhorn is to be the music supervisor. Contract dates for the young actors will be from July 4 through Aug. 25. The musical will run from July 30 through Aug. 25.

Puppet “Fables”

The next Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre offering at Bay Street Theater will be the Wonderspark Puppets and “Fox Fables” on Saturday at 11 a.m. The show combines several Aesop’s Fables to tell the story of a fox who loses his tail “and with it his identity,” according to the theater. Tickets cost $15 and are available at goatonaboat.org. 

Jamming at John Jermain

What do Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny have in common? Not much, until the 1996 movie “Space Jam,” in which the basketball superman helps the Looney Tunes gang up their game to win a showdown that will keep them from the clutches of an evil alien theme park owner. The movie will be shown on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor at a screening for kids up to sixth grade. Popcorn will be served. 

Also at the library this week, kids 5 to 8 will look to Jackson Pollock for inspiration in a drip-painting class from 4 to 5 p.m. On Friday, March 15, kids in third through sixth grades will decorate cupcakes with a St. Patrick’s Day theme at 3:45 p.m. Advance registration is required for both programs.

High Tech, Low Tech

High school students will have two chances explore virtual reality this week at the East Hampton Library, on Saturday from 2 to 4 and on Monday from 5 to 7 p.m. 

For younger children ages 3 to 5, there will be a bird collage workshop inspired by the illustrations of Lois Ehlert on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Alexander Calder will be the inspiration for a sculpture workshop for kids 6 and older next Thursday at 4 p.m.

“Happy Songs”

Katherine C.H.E., a South Fork musician and parent, has released a new CD of children’s music titled “Happy Songs All Day Long.” It is fully informed and steeped in the Americana and folk traditions with a happiness filter,� the musician said in a release. She produced and performed all the songs on the album, which is available for download for $9.99 on her website, katherinechemusic.com. 

More Marvel

The Hampton Library in Bridgehampton continues to celebrate Marvel Month this week. On Tuesday kids in sixth grade and up will use old Marvel comic books and Mod Podge glue and sealer to make super coasters at 3:30 p.m. That same age group will be treated to an after-hours showing of “Avengers: Infinity War” on Friday, March 15, at 6:30. 

Other programs at the library this week include a sapling planting session for ages 7 to 12 on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and leprechaun trap building for ages 4 and up on Friday, March 15, at 4 p.m. Advance registration has been requested for most programs. 

Blue-Spotted Spotting

If the weather cooperates — and that means plenty of rain — Andy Sabin will lead families on an evening search for the rare blue-spotted salamander on Saturday at 6:30 in Montauk. This walk is for families with children 6 and older, who have been asked to take a flashlight and wear boots. Registration is through the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton, where Mr. Sabin is president of the board. 

Shine in Bridgehampton

Shine, which offers workshops and parties for kids in the New York metropolitan area, will head east on Saturday for a two-hour workshop at 10 a.m. at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. The cost, which includes all materials, is $75, with sibling discounts available. Registration is at [email protected] or 212-414-5427.

When the curtain rises Friday night on the East Hampton High School production of “Les Misérables,” it will be the culmination of more than three months of intense work for the 80-plus students involved, and on Monday as tech week began, the excitement in the school auditorium was palpable. 

“It is a giant musical undertaking, an entire show of singing and really musically challenging stuff, but we have a really talented cast, some very strong singers that have been working on the stage for many, many years, and we thought it would be a challenge that we were all up for,” said Dylan Greene, the school’s choral director. 

It was that depth of talent that convinced Debbie Mansir, the play’s director, that the students could pull off what she described as “one of the most challenging shows, especially for this age group.” 

“There are only eight lines of spoken dialogue,” she said. “The rest of it is entirely sung.” The teen actors had not only to learn the songs and choreography, but how to convey all the emotions of their characters while singing and dancing. 

Auditions were held in November, and “we started with character development and rehearsals right after Thanksgiving. We knew that this would take a great deal of work, but they really have thrown their whole selves into it,” Ms. Mansir said Monday as the full cast was fitted with microphones for the first time. 

There are 46 student performers, 22 more in the orchestra, and another 15 on the stage crew. 

“Before we even started rehearsing vocally or blocking or anything, we took a great deal of time for character development and to understand the history of what was going on in France in the early 1800s,” Ms. Mansir explained. 

And that’s a lot to grasp for anyone, let alone high school students. In a 1987 article in The New York Times just before its American debut, Leslie Bennetts wrote: “An epic portrait of 19th-century Paris, from its teeming streets and factories to its brothels and sewers, ‘Les Misérables’ encompasses three tumultuous decades of French history and incorporates into its vast scope so many episodes and characters that they are often described as innumerable.” 

It is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant who serves a 19-year prison sentence for stealing a loaf of bread. He breaks parole, is shown mercy by a compassionate bishop, and becomes prosperous in a new life with a new identity, but is forever dogged by the police inspector Javert.  

While there is, indeed, much misery in the story, “the message of the show is extraordinary,” Ms. Mansir said. “Even though Victor Hugo wrote it in the 1860s, the message is still relevant today — from darkness to light, evil to good, despair to deep faith. The power of redemption and forgiveness is so prevalent.” 

The entire cast had the chance to see the version of the musical the school is producing in December at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport. Most had never seen it or even heard of it before, “but they have fallen in love with it,” Ms. Mansir said. 

Jayne Freedman, a founder of the Springs Community Theater and mother of one of the lead actors, is the assistant director. Troy Grindle directs the orchestra. 

“We have an amazing production team,” said Ms. Mansir. She has been involved in dozens of student productions since she started working at the school in 2003, first under Serena Seacat. She has been working with some of the cast members since they were in middle school. Without prompting, each actor who had been in one of her productions before said how glad he or she was to be working with her again. And some, like Jack Hodgens, who graduated from East Hampton in 2011, keep coming back. Mr. Hodgens said he was in “all the musicals, every single one,” and has helped out with fight scene choreography last year and this. 

Aiden Cooper, a sophomore who plays Javert, has had Ms. Mansir as a director since fourth grade. “It’s a really good connection I have with her, and I feel like I can go to her and talk to her about anything,” Aiden said during Monday’s rehearsal. “It’s just a great environment that I love to be a part of. . . . We’re all a family. Whenever something happens or someone’s going through a tough time, you’re always there for each other.” 

Colin Freedman, a junior who plays Valjean, is another veteran student actor, having appeared in every East Hampton High School musical since his freshman year as well as productions at the Bridgehampton School and with his mother’s Springs Community Theater at Guild Hall. This production, however, “is a lot more work,” Colin said. “I’ve never had a part this big. . . . I’ve been listening to the music nonstop. I don’t really have time to not think about the show. I’m always thinking about the show and what I can do to improve.” 

Grace Hosey and Indira Roth, who are freshmen and have appeared in school productions and with Stages, A Children’s Theatre Workshop, both commented on how professional this production seems compared to ones in middle school. 

“This one is a grand play, and it’s a play with a big reputation, and I think we’re doing it some justice,” said Naomi Blowe, a senior. 

“This is one of the most dedicated groups of kids I’ve had the privilege to work with,” Ms. Mansir said. 

“It’s been fun to watch them start to really embody these roles, and to be onstage in costume under the lights it really kind of transforms the whole thing,” Mr. Greene said on Tuesday. An East Hampton graduate himself, like Ms. Mansir before him, he spent a lot of time on the stage during his own high school career. “It’s been really nice to come back and work on the other side of the stage and of the classroom, and, of course, one of my favorite parts of the whole thing is getting to know the kids and watching them grow through the process and over the years. . . . I don’t think that when I was their age I appreciated it as fully as I do being able to see it from this new perspective now. So being able to impart a little of that appreciation and that joy, that excitement, and kind of fuel them in their projects is really great.”

“Les Misérables” will play at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets, which will be sold at the door, cost $20 for adults, $10 for students and senior citizens.

Beatriz Rivas grew up in Mexico, where she married at 15 and did not have the money for books or the monthly tuition to attend high school. Noemi Sanchez, also from Mexico, had her first daughter at 16 and could not afford to continue past sixth grade. Sandra Jácome went to university in Ecuador for three years but could not afford to complete her degree. 

“I never lost interest in finishing,” Ms. Jácome said.

Now living on the South Fork, Ms. Jácome, Ms. Sanchez, and Ms. Rivas see the chance to get the degrees that eluded them when they were younger. The three are among 18 people — all but one of them women — preparing for their high school equivalence exams in a pilot program at the East Hampton Library. Conceived of and taught by Celia Josephson, a lawyer who also teaches English as a second language at the library, the equivalence class meets each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an hour for lunch. It is taught in English and is open to any adult studying for the Test Assessing Secondary Completion. Materials and instruction are free, and students work at their own pace, taking the exam when they feel ready. If they have to miss a class, it’s no problem, Ms. Josephson said. 

A volunteer E.S.L. teacher at the library for two years and a paid teacher for another three, Ms. Josephson came to understand that many of her students had not obtained even a middle school education in their native countries. There are various cultural reasons for this, she said, including an assumption in rural communities that women will marry young and have children young. In addition, in Mexico and some Central and South American countries, a high school education is not mandatory and has to be paid for privately, putting it out of reach for many. 

The pilot TASC prep class was a direct result of her epiphany. 

Part of the learning curve for Ms. Josephson as a teacher is “to find out what the students are coming from and what they need. Once you know that it becomes easier to meet the need.” Most of the women in the TASC class (and her E.S.L. classes, too) have had children and are eager to complete “the education they never received.”

Ms. Josephson researched the materials she thought were best — texts by Kaplan and by Pearson and calculators. Online videos teach students how to use the calculators. Students learn grammar and idiom through newspaper articles, which are often “stories in which they can identify with the participants in short dialogue,” ultimately helping them with the civics portion of the exam they must take, as well as with essay writing.

And, since idioms are often incorrect grammatically, she tries to flesh out the grammar for her students, which is also something that reading articles can help with. “I liken becoming fluent to getting to the top of a mountain,” she said. And, she added, “pride in being able to speak a language perfectly is a roadblock to learning it extremely well.” 

Ms. Josephson learned Spanish in Mexico during a gap year when she was in her early 20s by watching Spanish language television. Even though she teaches the prep class in English, knowing Spanish comes in handy because she can explain an English word or phrase a student might be having trouble with. 

To pass the English language portion of the test, students have to pass reading and writing assessments, which include demonstrating a grasp of grammar. Other subjects are math (no calculus but some statistics and probability theory), science (some physics, biology, and chemistry), and social studies, which include United States history and civics. Aside from the English-language subjects, students can take exams on the other subjects in their own language.

There was an atmosphere of relaxed concentration during a visit to one of the classes last month. Ms. Josephson is a patient and natural teacher, and her students clearly appreciate her drive to help them achieve their goals. “Being with our teacher is the best,” said Ms. Rivas in Spanish. “Being away from your routine in such a pleasant, concentrated, and nice atmosphere makes the time pass quickly. Her classes help many people.” 

Ms. Rivas is also in one of Ms. Josephson’s English as a second language classes and before the prep class had officially begun last month, Ms. Josephson gave her the TASC textbook as a gift. “It’s the best present for 2019,” said Ms. Rivas, “to be able to come here and have a new goal in our lives.”

Students take the classes seriously, but they also enjoy themselves. In her E.S.L. classes, participants often volunteer to bring in hot food for holiday parties. For Valentine’s Day, her TASC class made food for lunch. “There is a really good feeling to the cultural tradition of sharing food,” Ms. Josephson said, and people seem to learn better when they’re having fun. 

“I feel a connection between her and me that helps me feel safer,” Ms. Jácome said. She is also grateful that the library “would support the Latino community by letting them use this space.” She would like to go on to study accounting or be a nurse, she said. 

There are still openings in the prep class, which runs through June, and if the pilot class is a success, a second section may be offered. Registration is by calling the library at 631-324-0222, extension 3.

Simmering tension in the Springs School community burst into public view at the last two public meetings of the district’s school board. Supporters of two teachers who have alleged harassment by school officials expressed extreme displeasure with the current administration at a Feb. 4 meeting that turned raucous. A week later, however, four Springs teachers praised the board and the district superintendent, Debra Winter, and cited positive accomplishments they say have been made at the school.

The most contentious exchanges came during public comment on Feb. 4. Four Springs School graduates who go to East Hampton High School took the microphone one by one to express support for Diane Mehrhoff, a Springs substitute teacher who filed a claim with the New York State Division of Human Rights in May of 2018 alleging that previous efforts to alert Ms. Winter to the behavior of Michael Henery, the school’s business administrator since mid-2017, were either ignored or prompted Ms. Winter to punish her. Ms. Mehrhoff started teaching at the school in 2004 and took on additional work as a part-time clerk-typist there starting in 2016. 

Ms. Mehrhoff’s student supporters were followed by Ruggero Garsetti, who described himself as a 25-year resident of the hamlet and called on Ms. Winter and the entire board to resign. Admonishing them to quit “wasting” taxpayer money, Mr. Garsetti decried the district’s mounting legal costs (which he put at six figures) to defend itself in the Mehrhoff case and in a second matter involving an unnamed female teacher who filed a complaint with East Hampton police after telling school officials that a male school board member (who remains on the board) inappropriately touched her at the school in February of 2018. 

Regina Cafarella of the Douglas A. Spencer legal firm investigated the latter case for the district. According to published reports, she told the board her investigation found the incident had occurred but that it did not rise to a violation of state or federal law.  She declined to comment when reached by phone on Monday. 

Ms. Mehrhoff alleged in her complaint to the state that Mr. Henery repeatedly made misogynistic statements, some of which were profane, about teachers and other school colleagues at various times in 2018. She alleged that as a result of one of her complaints, Mr. Henery, one of her supervisors, visited an office she was working in the next day and made additional remarks. She was eventually demoted from clerk-typist to hall monitor by the board after she complained about Mr. Henery, and then saw her hall monitor job eliminated. Ms. Mehrhoff also alleges that her substitute teaching at the school and access to the building were cut back.

Responding to a request for comment, Ms. Winter wrote an email Tuesday saying, “Unfortunately, I cannot speak about personnel matters. I can only say that I do not tolerate any forms of harassment or bullying. Every claim, even if it does not rise to actionable harassment, has been investigated and appropriate action taken. The substitute teacher is still employed as a substitute teacher.”

That fact did not stop dozens of Ms. Mehrhoff’s supporters from attending the Feb. 4 meeting.

Renny Murphy, the first of the four students who spoke on Ms. Mehrhoff’s behalf, was stopped in mid-sentence at the start of her remarks by Barbara Dayton, the school board president, after mentioning Ms. Winter and Mr. Henery by name. “Let her speak . . . . This is a cover-up,” members of the audience shouted. 

Banging her gavel three times, Ms. Dayton attempted to call the meeting to order. She calmly said that though the speakers were welcome to talk, “The public needs to understand there are certain regulations that happen in a public venue regarding employees at the school. Personnel items are not up for public discussion by the board.” 

A school attorney seconded Ms. Dayton’s explanation, and more grumbling ensued.

Ms. Murphy and the other students responded to Ms. Dayton’s instructions and, for the most part, stopped mentioning school officials by name. But Ms. Murphy, Hannah Hartsough, and Jessie Branche, the first three, were visibly upset and occasionally wiped away tears as they spoke with quavering voices about Ms. Mehrhoff’s positive influence and how the situation has dented their pride and affection for the Springs School.

Ms. Murphy said Ms. Mehrhoff “taught us how to treat people with respect. However, she was not given the same respect when she filed claims of harassment. I’m disappointed by the lack of regard for her claims.” Ms. Hartsough called Ms. Mehrhoff’s treatment “unjust and despicable.” Ms. Branche added, “Ms. Mehrhoff and others in the school have been harassed, and the administration has turned a blind eye.” 

Rory Murphy, Renny’s sister, was the last Springs graduate to speak. “I was always proud to be a Springs kid. Then I was astonished. Then I was devastated and disappointed,” she said. “The only thing you are teaching is men can victimize women, and anyone who is victimized should be silent.”

Ms. Dayton and the board ended the meeting without comment after each speaker finished to applause.

The tone was quite different when the school board convened on Feb. 11. Four current teachers praised the work of Ms. Winter and the board. Tracy Frazier, a Springs teacher who is married to Timothy Frazier, a school board member, offered a long list of recent administration accomplishments, from mold remediation to the ongoing expansion of the crowded building. Ryan Scala, a fifth-grade teacher, praised several programs the school has added. Two other speakers lauded the five-year contract recently reached with the teachers’ union.