The Universal Language

The East End Youth Quartet will perform a free concert on Friday, May 25, at 7 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center’s Levitas Center for the Arts on Pond Lane in Southampton.

The event is inspired by the 70th anniversary of the worldwide Human Rights Initiative, introduced at the United Nations in 1948 by Eleanor Roosevelt.

The young musicians — Tessa Arnzen on viola, Kristina Georges and Sofia Skoldberg on violin, and Ethan Young on cello — all ages 12 to 14, said their goal is to communicate that music is a universal language that evokes emotional reactions. Copies of a booklet describing all 30 human rights will be available and refreshments will be served.

Family Day, Take 2

A family day at the LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton has been rescheduled for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. after a grim forecast put the event on hold last weekend. 

The free event offers families the chance to roam LongHouse’s 16 acres of plantings, paths, and sculpture installations. Family art projects and activities, live music, guided tours, and refreshments make the day especially child-friendly. 

With this weekend’s forecast also less than ideal, a call to LongHouse in advance may be a good idea. 

Libraries Are Abuzz

On Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Amagansett Library, children ages 7 to 11 can create butterflies using beads, pipe cleaners, and a clothespin. A fruits and vegetables story time will be held Wednesday from 3 to 3:45 p.m. for 3 and 4-year-olds. The library’s teen advisory group will meet tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. Children ages 12 and up can earn community service credit while brainstorming about new ideas for library activities. 

In Sag Harbor, middle school trivia night is Saturday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the John Jermain Library.

At the Montauk Library, the entire family is invited to a screening of “Peter Rabbit” on Saturday from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Popcorn and refreshments will be served. 

CMEE’s Book Swap

A community book swap is scheduled for Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Children’s Museum of the East End. The event is free and open to all.

Tests, Totes, and Bunnies 

On Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., high school students can take a practice Regents exam in earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, algebra, or geometry. Tests will be proctored, scored and returned by Connor Christian from Hamptons Strategies for Success.

Teens can stop by on Sunday from 3 to 4:30 p.m. to make a tote bag using Sharpies and stencils.

For kids ages 4 and up there’s a bunny story time and craft activity on Tuesday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., and a candlemaking class on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

A young adult mural, created by the East Hampton High School’s art club, will be unveiled next Thursday at 3 p.m. The unveiling is open to all. Refreshments will be served.

For Budding Astronomers

Paul Stengel, a solar system ambassador from NASA and an award-winning science teacher, will give an astronomy talk, “Next Stop Mars,” tomorrow from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum for families with children ages 8 and up. The event is co-sponsored by the Montauk Observatory and will be followed by star viewing, weather permitting. Advance registration is suggested.

The Ross School in East Hampton, which serves students from nursery through high school, announced the establishment of the Courtney Sale Ross Honors Scholarship for day and boarding students entering 7th through 12th grades during the 2018-19 academic year. 

“This scholarship will make available up to $1 million of merit-based tuition assistance to students whose academic performance, service within the community, and demonstrated passion and creativity align with Ross School’s values,” a release said. 

The private school, which will close its lower campus in Bridgehampton in the fall and move all classes to the upper campus on Goodfriend Drive, already awards more than $3 million in financial aid and scholarships annually. The new scholarship will be in addition to that.

“We are excited to announce this scholarship, which bears the name of Ross School’s founder, Courtney Sale Ross, and reflects her vision of Ross as a diverse and inclusive learning community,” said Jason Warnick, the school’s director of admissions and financial aid. “Ross is committed to opening doors to promising students from all backgrounds, and we hope that this opportunity will allow families to consider a future at Ross School, regardless of their financial circumstances.”

The deadline to submit an application is June 15. Interested applicants have been asked to visit ross.org/scholarship for more information or contact the school’s admissions office.

John J. Ryan, a member of the East Hampton School District Board of Education, told the public and fellow board members at its meeting Tuesday, that he was pleased they had arrived at the proposed budget for 2018-19 without going into “a shouting match.”

“It was a team effort,” echoed Richard Burns, the district superintendent, as he presented an almost $69 million proposed budget, which reflects an approximate increase of $956,000 or 2.2 percent over this year. The increase stays below the allowable tax cap.

Since 2011, when state officials imposed a 2-percent limit on property tax increases for school budgets, districts have had little leeway in annual expenses. Albany’s plan was to provide relief to highly taxed suburban homeowners, and the effort has been reflected in extremely tight budgets, forcing many districts to find ways to reallocate money and dip into reserves rather than exceed the cap. East Hampton has stayed under the cap each year except for one,without major disruption to operations, and, according to board members, it has continued to expand programs. 

New personnel in the three East Hampton schools  as well as staff salaries and benefits account for 75 to 80 percent of the district’s proposed budget, or almost $50 million of the total, the superintendent said.

Shouting matches, like inflated bud­gets, seem to be of another era.

Sitting in his office on Long Lane last week, Mr. Burns described the tight budget numbers. “We don’t even have any pens and pencils accounted for in here,” he said. Also present was Isabel Madison, the assistant superintendent for business, who will retire in June after 14 years as the district’s chief fiscal officer.

The departure of the district’s prekindergarten program from the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center and its return to an in-house program at the John M. Marshall Elementary School was a major money saver, the superintendent said.

The district will save approximately $600,000 with that move. Some of that money will be spent on retaining elementary staff, whose jobs had been threatened as a result of the numbers dwindling from 643 to 513 over the last few years, said Beth Doyle, the elementary school principal. New staffing positions have been added to handle the influx at John Marshall.

“So far, we have 56 kids registered for pre-K in the fall,” said Mr. Burns. Registration is on a rolling basis and he anticipated the program would end up with about 65 to 70 children.

Ms. Madison made her final budget presentation a school board meeting on Tuesday. She said the board had set five clear, long-term goals: Improve academic achievement, maintain community communication, facility management, and fiscal responsibility, and continue policy development.

The first of these goals, she said, was to see East Hampton place in the top 25 percent in academic achievement in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. This has not yet been reached, she said, but she pointed to an upward trend. On the other four points, she said the school has been successful. 

On May 15, annual voting day, taxpayers will find a second referendum on the ballot as the district seeks voter approval for an $8.9 million bond to cover the purchase of a three-acre property on Springs-Fireplace Road, and the subsequent construction of a school bus depot and vocational education center there. 

The district now spends $200,000 annually to rent an “outdated space that is in constant need of repair,” Mr. Burns said, referring to property on Route 114 that serves as the current school bus depot. In addition, insurance in connection with the depot costs the district $14,500 per year. Those numbers are projected to increase to approximately $351,000 and $17,000 in 20 years, for a total payout of just under $5.7 million. 

By comparison, the $8.9 million proposed bond, to be paid back over 20 years, would give the school ownership of the Springs-Fireplace property. Homeowners with an average assessed property value of $6,000, would see an estimated tax increase of $25.47 annually, if the bond is approved, the superintendent said. Over 20 years, that number would decrease to approximately $15 a year.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Burns also made a case for the vocational educational center the school intends to build on the bus depot site, which would offer students opportunities to be trained and licensed in such fields as auto repair, welding, and automotive computer programming. Students enrolled in such programs now must travel to a Board of Cooperative Educational Services center in Riverhead, which costs the district $14,000 a year per pupil.

The new facility would allow students to gain valuable instructional time, said Mr. Burns, adding that vocational educational students are now often unable to be on sports teams because they cannot attend practice sessions. 

“Students depart from school either at 6:30 or 7 a.m. for Riverhead,” said Adam Fine, the high school principal. “And return around 11:30.”

If voter approval is gained, the projected date for completion of the bus depot is September 2020.

Also at the meeting, J.P. Foster, the school board president, cautioned that if the bond is not approved, his “recommendation will be to go back to the Cedar Street property.” He was referring to land owned by the district that had initially been earmarked as the bus depot site, but that drew intense ire from neighbors. If Cedar Street is back on the table, said Mr. Foster, the vocational education part of the equation would be eliminated. 

With the 2018-19 proposed budget at just under $69 million, taxes for homeowners have been estimated: A property with an assessed value of $6,000 (or roughly $1 million in market value), would be approximately $52 yearly, or $4.30 monthly. For a property with an assessed value of $8,200, the estimated increase in taxes would be $71 annually or $5.83 monthly.

If the vote is defeated, and the school is forced to cut this year’s increase of $956,781, Ms. Madison pointed out that certain transportation benefits, athletics, and extracurricular activities, as well as teacher and training conferences, would be the first to go.

Residents of public school districts throughout the state will head to the polls on May 15 to decide the fate of annual budgets and also to vote for board members seeking re-election or wishing to win a seat. Here is a look at which school board members are stepping down or running for re-election, as well as new candidates whose names will appear on the ballots.

Two seats are in play in East Hampton, with Christina DeSanti, the board’s vice president, and Elizabeth Pucci at the end of their terms. Ms. DeSanti is seeking re-election but Ms. Pucci is not. Two newcomers, Sarah Minardi and Jeffrey Erickson, are running for the seats.

In Amagansett, Dawn Rana-Brophy, a board member, is seeking re-election, and her only challenger so far is Mary A. Eames, a well-known board critic. The district’s search for a new superintendent to take over from Eleanor Tritt, who will retire at the end of June, also is underway.

Barbara Dayton, the president of the Springs School Board, is running for 

re-election. Unless write-in candidates emerge before May 15, she will be uncontested.

In Bridgehampton, Ronald White, Lillian Tyree-Johnson, and Doug DeGroot’s seats are expiring this year and all three are running again. No candidates to oppose them had come forward at press time.

Lee White, a Montauk School Board member, is uncontested in running to retain his seat.

The Sag Harbor School Board has two openings since Susan Schaefer and Stephanie Bitis are at the end of their terms. Ms. Schaefer has declared herself a candidate for re-election while Ms. Bitis has declined. The only contender so far is Jordana Sobey.

There is a vacant seat in the Sagaponack School District as Joseph P. Louchheim, the board’s president, has declared himself unavailable after his term ends on June 30. His place will be filled by either Lauren Thayer or Diane Payne, the only two candidates thus far.

In Wainscott, Kelly Anderson will seek re-election and is, at least for the moment, uncontested.

“Sixteen percent of women at colleges are sexually assaulted,” said Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, an East Hampton Town Board member, as an introduction to a screening on Monday of “The Hunting Ground,” a 2015 documentary that uncovered the epidemic of sexual assault and rape on America’s college campuses.

This is the third year the documentary has been shown at the East Hampton Library as part of a monthlong series of programming by the Retreat, a nonprofit group that offers services to victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault, held during April, which is Sexual Assault Prevention Month.

On Monday evening about 15 high school students were present — only one a boy — for the screening and a panel discussion that followed.

The documentary presents a string of interviews with college women, and a few men, who recount their experiences of rape, and the institutions’ often tepid, sometimes shockingly indifferent, responses. The film, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015 where it received a standing ovation. The New York Times called it “a must-watch work of ciné-activism,” and it went on to be screened at the White House and shortlisted for an Oscar. Lady Gaga won a Grammy for the film’s title song she co-wrote with Diane Warren.

Most important, however, it awakened the nation to a grave issue. Since then, a student-led national network has emerged, promoting awareness campaigns and education programs. Hundreds of related online help groups, advice centers, and advocacy websites now exist, including one started by Vice President Joseph Biden in 2016. For most of these organizations, the goal is always the same: to press colleges to improve often haphazard procedures surrounding sexual assault allegations; to provide clear rules about what constitutes consent and to publicize those rules on campus, and to encourage students to look out for one another.

On that last point, Kim Bryson, a senior investigator of the Campus Sexual Assault Victims Unit of the New York State Police, offered advice to the teens at the library during the panel discussion that followed the screening, which was moderated by Loretta Davis, executive director of the Retreat. 

“Don’t be judgmental,” she said, explaining that asking things like, “Why didn’t you run?” or “Why didn’t you scream?” only makes a victim feel that he or she was to blame, that had they acted differently, they could have avoided it. 

“Be a good friend,” said the police officer. “Stop the victim blaming. Just let them know you’re sorry about what happened and you’re there to help.”

Joining her on the panel were Julie Goble, the Retreat’s project coordinator for the Enough Is Enough college program; Joshua Franklin, the rabbi of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons; Aimee Geehreng, a licensed social worker with the Family Service League, and Helen Atkinson-Barnes, the Retreat’s prevention education director.

Rabbi Franklin spoke about the need for more men to see the documentary and to become more aware of the issue. “Men need to be part of this conversation,” he said. “We need to be discussing how men should be behaving towards women. We need a culture change.” 

Much of “The Hunting Ground” does highlight what Ms. Goble called “toxic masculinity.” One scene depicts a group of young men from the Yale chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, outside a women’s dorm chanting, “No means yes! Yes means anal!”

In another clip, a male college student speaks on camera, clearly indignant over what defines a rapist. “If a girl didn’t say yes and someone still has sex with her, that does not make you a rapist,” he insists.

Ms. Bryson, the police officer, then pointed out a startling statistic: “One in 16 males are raped on college campuses. And they don’t feel they have a voice because it is a predominantly women’s issue,” she said. Ms. Bryson works with all schools and colleges in Suffolk County, some in Nassau County, and others in New York City. “We must educate everyone about sexual assault,” she urged.

“How can I get involved?” asked Anna Rafferty, an 11th grader from East Hampton.

There are many organizations to join, answered Ms. Goble, such as Mr. Biden’s It’s On Us (itsonus.org), Know Your IX (knowyourIX.org), A Call to Men (acalltomen.org), End Rape on Campus (endrapeoncampus.org), and, more locally, the Retreat (theretreat.org). 

The movie also focuses on an apparent failure of colleges and universities to press charges against sexual offenders for fear of damaging the institutions’ prestigious reputations. At the University of Virginia, the film reveals, there were 205 reported assaults between 1998 and 2013, and zero resulting expulsions. Yet, there were 183 expulsions for cheating and other honor code violations during the same time period. Punishments doled out to perpetrators at other universities in the film are equally egregious: a one-day suspension, a $25 fine, and a response paper assigned for the perpetrator to reflect upon what he had done.

In the three years since the film was released, and despite an apparent low-level campaign to discredit it, there has been unprecedented progress on the issue. The awareness and activism of students has led to furthering prevention and intervention strategies. The engagement of male students in anti-sexual assault campaigns has made a significant impact as young men step forward and speak out about honoring the necessity of “consent.” A cultural shift appears to burgeoning. 

Colleges and universities nationwide are also rolling out mandatory tutorials for students about consent and training programs such as bystander intervention, which teach them how to intervene whenever they witness situations that could lead to assault. 

The film has also been a catalyst for legislative reform. United States Senators Claire McCaskill and Kirsten Gillibrand have led a bipartisan group in co-sponsoring a campus sexual assault bill in the Senate that would create a standardized university process for dealing with cases of sexual violence, with disciplinary proceedings conforming to national standards.

And yet, statistics show an increase in the number of sexual assault on campuses.

“Actually, it’s not the number that’s rising,” said Ms. Bryson. It’s the number of reports as a result of increased awareness and education, she explained.

Vice President Biden repeatedly said that even one sexual assault is too many, and that is inarguably true.

A much-anticipated Springs School fund-raiser, the annual Seedlings Project plant sale, will be back tomorrow from 3:30 to 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The sale takes place in the greenhouse behind the school.

Hailey London, the school’s garden educator and greenhouse manager, has urged the public to take advantage of the opportunity.

A bounty of fruit and vegetable plants, from zucchini to watermelon, tomatoes, cantaloupes, peas, and carrots, as well as a variety of flowering plants and herbs, all lovingly grown from seeds planted by Springs students, will be for sale at the greenhouse, which can be accessed from the school entrance on Old Stone Highway. All plants are 100-percent organic and priced at $3 and up. Proceeds will benefit the Springs Seedlings Project.

The after-school gardening initiative is made possible by Project Most, a nonprofit organization that provides after-school programs at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton and the Springs School. Following the model of the Edible Schoolyard, established by Alice Waters of the Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., this “garden classroom” aims to teach students from kindergarten to eighth grade the importance of sustainable food sources and creating healthy nutritional habits for life.

Throughout the year, parents, members of the community, and farmers from EECO Farm, Balsam Farms, and other farms volunteer in the greenhouse classroom, and they all get their hands dirty in the process.

As is customary, a bake sale organized by parents will feature produce-inspired goods like zucchini bread, and there will be face painting and strawberry planting to occupy kids while parents shop.

“Supplies may be dwindling by Saturday,” cautioned Ms. London.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last Thursday that the Assembly had passed legislation to improve teacher evaluations by delinking them from standardized testing and returning control to local school districts. The legislation recognizes that what works for one classroom or district may not work for another, Assemblyman Thiele noted. 

But on Monday, New York’s top education officials weighed in on the subject during the monthly Board of Regents meeting in Albany. The board sets education policy.

The bill being discussed would make the use of state test scores in teacher evaluations optional rather than mandatory. If passed, it would mark a major break from the current law, where as much as half of an educator’s evaluation can be based on standardized tests.

“Every kid learns differently and it should be up to the people who know them best — their teachers and school districts — to figure out how to meet their needs,” Assemblyman Thiele wrote in a press release. “The best educators concentrate on the child in front of them, not the test looming over the horizon.” 

Meanwhile, the state’s education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, and certain board members warned of potential unintended consequences: increased testing for students, since the bill allows districts to create alternative assessments for use in teacher evaluations. However, in districts that provide alternative tests, students would still be required by federal law to take state tests.

Though neither the regents nor the State Education Department can vote on the bill, their opinions could sway lawmakers in the Senate, which must pass the bill for it to become law.

In East Hampton, the entire debate could be irrelevant because Richard Burns, the district superintendent, recently announced that last week’s state-mandated math exams for third through eighth graders had a 95 percent participation rate. 

“At this point we’re not referring to it as an opt out,” he said, referring to the so-called opt out movement, which saw record numbers of students boycott state exams over the last few years. “We’re opting in.”

Dude’s Films at Guild Hall

The first Dude’s Eye View Short Film Share, featuring short videos made by boys from East Hampton High School, will be on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

The program will be presented by Kate Mueth and the Neo-Political Cowgirls in partnership with the Hamptons International Film Festival. The films are the culmination of a six-week pilot workshop designed to give high school boys a space to connect, share thoughts and ideas, and find the power in the creative outlet of expression through film and video.

Charlie Westfal, an actor who was most recently in Guild Hall’s “Romeo and Juliet,” led the workshop. Sawyer Spielberg, an actor, will lead a post-screening question-and-answer session with the participants on Tuesday.

The event is free and open to the public. 

Family Fun at the LongHouse

Saturday is Family Day at the LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton. From 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. families can enjoy free garden tours, activities, music, and nibbles. 

Kids can take part in an interactive treasure hunt through the gardens. The Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center will be there with a red-tailed hawk and an eastern screech owl for all to meet. Gian Carlo Feleppa will also be there with instruments and props for music and movement. Bilingual tours will be offered at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Admission to the event is free.

Nipper Guard Evaluations

Free training, evaluations, and testing for East Hampton Town’s Nipper Guard program, a summer open-water swim program for children 6 through 8, began on Sunday at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter and will continue weekly from 1 to 2 p.m. through June 24.

Similar to the town’s Junior Lifeguard program, which trains children 9 and older at ocean beaches, this program offers younger children a solid foundation of beach readiness and water safety awareness. Instruction by certified lifeguards is offered weekly from late June through early August — Tuesdays and Thursdays at Albert’s Landing Beach in Amagansett or Wednesdays and Fridays at the East Lake bay beach in Montauk, both from 9 to 10:30 a.m.

The training, evaluations, and testing at the RECenter is a prerequisite for participation in the summer program. Children need not attend every session. Returning Nippers will be tested, and if they pass swim tests, they will not need to take part in the training or further evaluations. Six-year-olds will be expected to swim two laps in two minutes or less; for 7-year-olds, the target time is two laps in one minute and 45 seconds, and for 8-year-olds, it’s two laps in one minute, 30 seconds. 

Children new to the program will be pre-tested on their first day. Instructors will evaluate their freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke. Those who need additional work will be given basic instruction in subsequent Sunday sessions prior to testing. 

Registration begins at 12:30 p.m. 

The cost of the summer program, payable when registering at the bay beaches in June, is $60. 

Summer sessions include swimming, running, paddleboarding, and beach and marine educational activities. 

Sag Harbor in Focus

“Our Town: Sag Harbor in Focus,” a juried exhibition of photography by Pierson High School students, will be held from Saturday through May 20 at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum.

The show is the culmination of the third annual photography competition focusing on the Village of Sag Harbor as seen through the eyes of 8th through 12th graders. The contest was judged by Michael Heller, an award-winning photographer whose work for The Sag Harbor Express recently won him the New York Press Association’s Photographer of the Year award, and Theo Gray, who teaches filmmaking at the Ross School. 

The show kicks off on Saturday with an opening reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and will include an awards ceremony. It will close with a panel discussion on adversity, diversity, and change on May 19 at 4 p.m. at the museum.

Mindfulness, Mountains, and Slime

Children ages 5 to 9 can practice mindfulness at the Amagansett Library on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Breathing exercises, simple yoga poses, and a progressive relaxation technique known as “melted butter” will leave them feeling relaxed and happy.

A book club for tweens meets monthly at the library to discuss new books, while snacking and socializing with friends. The next meeting, on Tuesday from 4 to 4:45 p.m., is open to third through sixth graders. Children ages 7 to 11 can make their own fluffy, colored slime on Wednesday from 4 to 4:45 p.m. at the Amagansett Library

At the East Hampton Library, kids 4 and older will create a freestanding 3-D mountain landscape on Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m.

Kids in kindergarten and up can use terra-cotta flower pots to make bunnies during an art program at the Montauk Library on Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m.

At the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton, kids in sixth grade and up can put their taste buds to test during a taste test challenge on Tuesday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. They’ll try to discern the differences between different brands and different flavors. Can they tell? 

Jell-O, Jobs, and Jackson Pollock 

The Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce and the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor will host a job fair on Monday to connect high school students looking for summer or part-time work with potential employers. The fair will run from 6 to 8 p.m. 

The library’s STEAM Sundays programs for children ages 8 to 11 will continue this week at 3 p.m. with a Jell-O earthquake challenge. Kids will use dry spaghetti to construct towers that can survive a big quake.

On Wednesday from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m., sixth through twelfth graders can work with Joyce Raimondo, an artist from the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, to learn about Jackson Pollock’s techniques and create their own drip paintings to take home. Advance registration is required.

Nature’s Wonders at SoFo

Kids 6 and up will learn what it takes for trees to survive while playing a specially designed South Fork Natural History Museum game at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Also for children ages 6 and up on Saturday at 2 p.m., Gregory Metzger, a chief field coordinator for the SoFo shark research and education program, will share fun facts about sharks while showing off the equipment he and his team of collaborators in the program use to catch and catalogue the sharks off Long Island.

On Sunday morning at 10:30, Eleni Nikolopoulos, a SoFo environmental educator, will teach kids ages 3 to 5 about the life and dietary habits of raccoons.

The Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center may be losing East Hampton’s prekindergarten students next year, but it could be gaining the Springs School District’s youngest students.

During a Springs School Board meeting earlier this month, Debra Winter, the superintendent, proposed that the district’s 36 pre-K students expected next year move from their current program at the Most Holy Trinity school building in East Hampton to the Whitmore Center. SCOPE Educational Services currently operates the half-day pre-K program for Springs 

The Whitmore Center’s prekindergarten program, which will be able to accommodate 60 children in the fall, finds itself with an abundance of available slots for the 2018-19 school year because of East Hampton’s decision to move its 72 prekindergartners in-house to the John M. Marshall Elementary School in the fall, which is expected to save that district $300,000. The center plans to have three sections of prekindergarten and to expand what it calls its 3-K program for 3-year-olds in the 2018-19 school year.

For Springs, the move to the early childhood center will cost the district $162,200, which is $48,800 more than it pays SCOPE to operate its program this year. But there are benefits to parents and students that may outweigh the added costs, Ms. Winter said.

“The big difference is that parents will now have the option to go from a two-and-a-half-hour daily program to a four-hour day with lunch and two snacks provided.” For working parents, she said, that is a major plus, as is the fact that the early childhood center in East Hampton offers an extended day option for about $145 a week that allows students to stay through 5:30 p.m. That option was not available in the Most Holy Trinity building.

The additional $48,800 has been factored into the proposed 2018-19 budget, recently adopted by the board.

Although, ultimately, the pre-K move is contingent upon voter approval on May 15, Ms. Winter said the school will go ahead with a lottery drawing in order to fill the 36 spots, available to Springs residents with children who will turn 4 by Dec. 1.

“We cannot wait until May 15 to see whether we can go ahead or not,” she said. “We need to get started on this now and if the budget is voted down, then this is the sort of thing that will be the first to be cut.”

With less than three weeks to go until statewide school budget votes on May 15, the Springs School District is the focus this week in The Star’s ongoing examination of 2018-19 proposed budgets in each district in our coverage area, in an effort to offer details of proposed changes and projections. 

The Springs School Board recently adopted its  proposed budget of approximately $28.9 million, an increase of $760,610 from this year, which represents a 2.98-percent state cap-compliant tax increase.

“Unlike many schools,” said Debra Winter, the district superintendent, in her first budget season at the school, “We first started the process by asking what each department needs.”

“It was like a wish list,” said Michael Henery, the school business administrator, also in his first Springs budget season.

The wish list, however, created about two months ago, was “a shock for the board,” according to Mr. Henery, since it came in well over $29 million. He then worked with each department head to prioritize their needs, and slowly the team whittled the figures down to cover “only what’s good for the kids,” Ms. Winter said. “There’s no admin stuff in here at all.”

One of the most important increases incorporated into next year’s budget will be in the area of security — both physical upgrades and a greater focus on mental health. Together they fit under the school’s theme for next year, which is “the whole child,” the superintendent said.

Her rationale is straightforward: It is of little use to simply beef up security with an extra guard or metal detector if children are having a mental health crisis that may be undetected. 

“We need to know where our children are mentally,” she said. This has resulted in making a second full-time psychologist available, as well as providing more hours for a second nurse to be on hand.   

Yoga classes will be added to the physical education program as well as mindfulness exercises, keeping kids involved in sports by offering more athletic options, continuing to develop the newly formed robotics team, and other STEAM-related activities.

Physical security measures will be upgraded with the addition of two school resource officers and extra cameras. The building will soon install a special card reader in the entry vestibule, which scans valid driver’s licenses or state-issued IDs. An immediate check is made against the national sex offender list as well as disgruntled ex-employees, persons with injunctions or court orders, and anyone who does not belong on school premises.

With President Trump announcing in February that he would cut roughly $3.6 billion in education aid during the next fiscal year, Ms. Winter pointed to the uncertainty of receiving grants, especially those linked to offsetting teachers’ salaries. “These are not competitive grants,” she said, but ones that are automatically granted based on the size of the school and the number of students. However, unable to predict what the school might receive next year, she said they had to budget $227,000 as a contingency.

Approximately $100,000 will be placed in the school’s capital repairs reserve for unforeseen overhaul needs. This is standard procedure in most schools, she said.

The school announced on April 9 its  proposed move from its current SCOPE Educational Services prekindergarten program to one at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center in East Hampton. A story on that proposal appears elsewhere on this page

Voters on May 15 will see a separate proposition on the ballot for $150,000, earmarked for two new wheelchair-accessible school buses to replace outdated ones. Also included in the proposition is $31,000 to buy and install security cameras for most of the buses.

If the school’s proposed 2018-19 budget of approximately $28.9 million is passed, homeowners of properties with an assessed value of $600,000 will see an estimated $175 increase in taxes per year; an $800,000 assessed property value will incur about $234 extra, and a property assessed at $1 million will see an annual increase of $292. 

On March 6, Springs taxpayers also approved a $16.9 million bond to cover the school’s expansion plans. However, those taxes will not go into effect until the school borrows the money. “We don’t anticipate borrowing for another year,” Ms. Winter said.  

Also on May 15, Barbara Dayton, the board’s president, will seek re-election, having served on the board since 2015. She is uncontested so far.

If the budget is rejected, Ms. Winter said, the school board would have to come back with a zero-percent increase from last year, which means all enhancements such as new mental health programs, Project Most after-school activities, and the pre-K changes would have to go.

The superintendent hopes that on voting day, the Springs community will see that “We’ve done our homework, we’ve taken the taxpayer into consideration, and we’re taking the whole child into consideration.”

A public budget hearing will be held on Monday, May 7, at 7 p.m. in the school library.