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.

 I love to cook but I also like shortcuts. I am not averse to using the occasional cake mix, envelope of Knorr sauce, cube of bouillon, or box of frozen white corn. These convenience foods deserve a place in every pantry and freezer.

A lot of convenience foods have recipes on their packages, some of which have become classics: Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies, Chex Mix, Argo Corn Starch lemon meringue pie, and Ritz Cracker’s mock apple pie. The Quaker Oats canister has the best oatmeal cookie recipe I have ever tried, although I do swap out the raisins for dried cherries or cranberries. Ghirardelli’s can of cocoa used to have a killer brownie recipe on its label. You can also play around with these recipes, making them lighter, healthier, and more savory.

Carissa Katz

Crack Pie has addictive qualities.

At a time when a lot of talented chefs are making dishes look like science projects (enough with the spittle and foam!), David Chang, the genius chef behind Momofuku, Ssam, Ko, and Noodle Bar, has been finding ways to utilize dried milk, cornflakes, oatmeal, and Twizzlers in thoroughly modern ways.

Convenience foods, or “tertiary processed foods,” as they are sometimes called, have evolved to such an extent that we are offered some kind of shortcut in every aspect of cooking today. Some should be avoided at all costs, such as TV dinners and instant mashed potatoes. Others, such as canned beans, tuna, frozen puff pastry, rice pilafs, and pancake mixes, are perfectly acceptable.

Couscous takes a mere five minutes to make. Try adding some diced and roasted carrots, onions, and fennel with a pinch of curry and you have a lovely side dish incorporating starch and some vegetables. You can improve stuffing mixes by sautéing onions and celery and tossing in some fresh thyme and parsley. Add a banana or blueberries and a half cup of granola to your Sunday morning Bisquick pancake mix.

Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix was introduced in 1869. The next historically significant convenience food was Libby’s canned meat, in 1890. Canned peas came in 1925, and Birdseye “frosted foods” came in 1930. Clarence Birdseye, an American living in Labrador, Canada, between 1912 and 1916, discovered the effect of rapid freezing on vegetables and developed the first “quick freezer” for fruits and vegetables.

Industrialization and the need to feed the post-World War II population led to a burst of new products in the 1940s like Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks, Minute Maid orange juice, Ragu pasta sauces, and Tupperware to keep all those nifty leftovers fresh. The iconic Swanson TV dinner made its debut in 1953 with many more frozen products to follow. Creativity has petered out over the last few decades with the only new noteworthy products being tuna kits and Heinz’s green and purple ketchups.

In 1965, close to 30 percent of American households were using convenience foods. By the 1990s, that number had doubled. Nowadays, almost every household consumes convenience (or fast) foods on a daily basis.

While this trend is alarming due to the lack of quality of some products and consumer education, you can find that some of these products have a rightful place in our kitchens. Frozen gyoza? Shelled edamame? Yes! Bottled salad dressings? Crushed garlic in a jar? No!

There is a show on TV called “Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade.” The philosophy from “the internationally acclaimed home and style expert” is to use 70 percent ready-made foods combined with 30 percent fresh ingredients. The show promises the viewers their dishes will taste as if they’ve been made from scratch.

Well, I am a “culinary expert” and I took a look at her episodes on money-saving recipes, and I was aghast at how fattening and ultimately not money saving they were. Scones, nachos, shortcakes, risottos, barbecue bean chili dogs, cinnamon roll French toast, spaghetti and meatball calzones, and canned peach pie. Surely there was at least one healthy sounding recipe? Pasta with edamame sounded promising. Alas, it was pimped up with bacon and sour cream.

I have to say that my cooking philosophy is far more Jamie Oliver — keep it fresh and simple — than Sandra Lee’s, who extols the virtues of Glazed Doughnut Crisps, (ingredients: sugar cookie mix, canned frosting, and artificial brandy extract, topped with drippy sugar icing and food coloring). Heavens!

Somewhere between fresh, made-from-scratch cooking and convenience foods there is a happy medium. Read the labels, use your own judgment, and feel free to whip up the occasional cake mix, Knorr hollandaise sauce, or Campbell’s soup tuna noodle casserole.

Crack Pie

Here is David Chang’s Milk Bar restaurant recipe for Crack Pie, adapted from Bon Appetit magazine.

Serves 10.

Oat cookie crust:

Nonstick spray

9 Tbsp. butter, room temp, divided

51/2 Tbsp. brown sugar, divided

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 egg

Heaping 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup flour

1/8 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp salt (generous)

Filling:

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tbsp. nonfat dry milk powder (optional)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter, melted, slightly cooled

61/2 Tbsp. heavy cream

4 large egg yolks

1 tsp. vanilla

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper. Spray with nonstick spray. Combine six tablespoons butter, four tablespoons brown sugar and two tablespoons sugar in bowl of mixer. Beat until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Add egg, beat until fluffy. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Spread into pan. Bake until light golden on top, about 18 minutes. Cool completely.

Using hands, crumble oat cookie into large bowl, add three tablespoons butter and 11/2 tablespoon brown sugar. Rub in with fingertips until mixture is moist enough to stick together. Transfer to nine-inch glass pie dish. Press evenly into dish and place on baking sheet.

Filling

Position rack in middle of oven, preheat to 350 degrees. Whisk both sugars, milk powder, and salt to blend. Add melted butter and whisk. Add cream, egg yolks, and vanilla and whisk until thoroughly blended. Pour into piecrust. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Filling may begin to bubble up. Reduce temperature to 325 degrees and continue baking until filling is brown in spots and set around edges but a bit wobbly in the center, about 15 to 20 minutes more. Cool at least two hours, then chill. Dust powdered sugar over pie before serving.

(Be warned, I have made this pie a few times and it is difficult to get out of pan. Be careful, be patient!)

Aunt Tink’s Lemon Cake

Back by popular demand, here is my Aunt Tink’s Lemon Cake!

1 package yellow cake mix

1 package lemon Jello

3/4 cup apricot nectar

3/4 cup canola oil

4 eggs

Glaze:

Juice and rind of two lemons

11/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Combine juice, rind, and sugar and beat until thick glaze consistency.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a springform or bundt pan. Beat cake ingredients for four minutes on medium speed. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. When cake is cool enough to handle, invert onto platter and top with glaze.

Knorr Hollandaise Made Better

Four servings.

1 envelope Knorr hollandaise sauce mix

1 cup whole or low fat milk

1/4 cup butter

1-3 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Pinch of cayenne or smoked paprika

Whisk sauce mix and one cup of milk in small saucepan. Add 1/4 cup butter and bring to boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened, about one minute. At this point, taste the sauce and add as much lemon juice as you like. Add a pinch of cayenne or smoked paprika if you like it a bit more piquant.

   Things are looking up for sure when Saturdays bring the chance to visit a farmers market. Given the season, the Sag Harbor Farmers Winter Market will be held indoors weekly from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through mid-May at 34 Bay Street, a building across from the Breakwater Yacht Club. Local vendors will be selling preserves, pastas, wine, cheese, baked good and other treats, and handcrafted gifts.

    Also on Sag Harbor’s Bay Street, the Dockside Bar and Grill will reopen for the season today. It will be serving lunch and dinner daily, except on Tuesday and Wednesday, plus brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.