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.”

High schoolers in Bridgehampton may be one step closer to answering the age-old question that students invariably ask: “Why am I learning this?”

The school hosted a STEAM day on Tuesday — that is, a day dedicated to showcasing careers that often stem from STEAM subjects, namely, science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

Businesses from across Long Island set up stations in the school gym, and 9th through 12th graders were given 20 minutes with representatives from each company to discuss how pursuing one or more of these subjects can eventually result in jobs, or even being career-ready by graduation time. 

A representative of Stott Architecture in Southampton discussed how all five STEAM subjects are utilized in the work they do there. Someone from Harbor Hot Tubs, also in Southampton, talked about how a knowledge of science — particularly water chemistry — and technology is useful in that trade. 

Eve Behar, a Sag Harbor ceramist and past president of the Clay Art Guild of the Hamptons, spoke about careers in the arts. Other businesses included Staples of Bridgehampton, Bridge Abstract, a title service for residential and commercial projects, Suburban Propane, Home Technology Experts, which provides luxury audio-video and smart home solutions, and Bridgehampton National Bank. 

“What a great preparation for 21st- century work-force readiness skills, necessary for success in the real world,” said Lisa M. Strahs-Lorenc, the director of school-business partnership programs at Career and Employment Options, a Hauppauge career-finding enterprise. “Our students need to learn about the relevance of their education, and Long Island companies need to connect to these students. They are our investment and success of our business growth and future.”

The Retreat, a nonprofit organization providing services for victims of domestic abuse, has hosted several events during April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The awareness-building campaign continues this week, with events specifically for teenagers and adults.

Today, the East Hampton Library will showcase an exhibition, “What Were You Wearing? A Survivor Art Installation,” which features clothing worn by victims of sexual assault at the time of the attack. The installation also includes survivors’ stories, and the aim is to shatter the myth that sexual violence is caused by a person’s wardrobe. The exhibition is free and will be on display all day.

The installation originated at the University of Arkansas in 2013 and since then has toured many college campuses across the country.

On Saturday, “The Vagina Monologues” returns to the Southampton Arts Center for encore performances at 2 and 7 p.m. This Obie Award-winning episodic play, written by Eve Ensler, introduces a divergent gathering of females who delve into topics such as consensual and nonconsensual sexual experiences, body image, genital mutilation, sex work — all told through the eyes of women of various ages, races, sexualities, and other differences. More details can be found in today’s arts section.

Back at the East Hampton Library, “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary that had its premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, will be screened on Monday starting at 6:30 p.m. Only high schoolers and adults will be admitted. A panel discussion will follow with representatives from the Retreat, the Family Service League, and the New York State Police.

The event is free, and high school students will receive two hours of community service.

Big Fun in East Hampton

Tractor-trailer trucks, fire rescue vehicles, police vans, and SWAT trucks will fill the parking lot of the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter during what the Y and 104.7 WELJ are calling Big Rig Saturday.

The event is a fund-raiser for the Stony Brook University Hospital’s children’s division, and a $5 donation is suggested for the cause. 

Between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., kids will have the chance to hop into some of the most unique vehicles on the East End. Food will be available for purchase alongside inflatable rides for younger children. The rain date is Sunday. 

The Y.M.C.A. parking lot will be closed for the event, but parking will be available in the large municipal lot on the opposite side of Lumber Lane.

Springtime Sounds and Kites 

Parents and caregivers with children of all ages can learn about the sounds of spring on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. Crystal Oakes, an environmental educator, will lead a family-friendly game to guess which birds, amphibians, and insects will be singing in the coming months. The group will then take a listening walk in Vineyard Field, behind the museum.

Children ages 8 and up can learn to make and fly a kite with Melanie Meade, a SoFo environmental educator, on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. There will be a materials fee of $5.

Advance registration is requested for both programs. 

Touch and Tech in Sag Harbor

A touch tank from the South Fork Natural History Museum will be at the John Jermain Memorial Library on Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m. Kids could get wet when they meet and hold saltwater creatures like long-legged spider crabs, whelks, sea stars, and hermit crabs, so short sleeves are recommended.

On Sunday from 1 to 2 p.m. families can stop by the children’s desk with their devices and questions to learn about the library’s online resources for children, including e-books and audiobooks that can be downloaded on phones, as well as free online tutoring and homework help.

Reptiles, Chicks, Wookies, and Pets

Kindergartners through sixth graders can meet reptiles and amphibians native to Long Island, courtesy of the South Fork Natural History Museum, tomorrow at 4 p.m. at the Montauk Library.

There’s a birthday party planned at the library on Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m. for baby chicks incubated there during the month of April. Kids in kindergarten and up can meet the chicks, give them names, make chick-theme desserts, and sing Happy Birthday before sending them off to be raised at Suffolk County Farm.

Friday, May 4, is Star Wars Day, and kids ages 8 and up can make Star Wars-theme Shrinky Dinks, which can be turned into a key chain or necklace, between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Pizza will be served.

Registration for all events is required as space is limited.

At the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton, children ages 4 and up will build miniature terrarium gardens to take home tomorrow at 4 p.m. 

Kids 5 to 8 can paint animals from the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and help them get adopted during a program tomorrow from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Amagansett Library.

Tennis, Anyone?

East Hampton Town tennis clinics for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade will begin next week at the Amagansett Youth Park on Abraham’s Path. 

Kindergarten and first grade will take to the courts on Wednesdays from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Second and third grades take over from 5:30 to 6:30 on Wednesdays. A clinic for fourth through sixth grades will be offered on Fridays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The cost is $45 per person for an eight-week session. Registration is at the East Hampton Town Parks and Recreation Department behind Town Hall or at the Montauk Playhouse.

With some students in nearby schools choosing to sit out Friday's National School Walkout against gun violence, those at the Ross School in East Hampton decided it was necessary to keep the momentum going and make renewed demands for gun safety in schools. This was the second nationally organized school walkout in about five weeks, and over 2,500 schools nationwide were said to have participated on Friday, which marked the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

"Having a space where people can feel protected and not in danger is important in order for a community to function well," said Caleb Wright, a ninth grader at the Ross High School, who was one of the main organizers of the event. "And seeing that school is where children spend most of their time, it should be a priority to make that space as secure and comfortable as possible."

Assisting him were his fellow students Caly Stewart, Ellie Damiecki, Greer Costello, Emma Tiedemann, Isabella Hosey, and Evvy Rattray. Together, they created an event for 7th through 12th graders on the Goodfriend Drive campus that was part walkout and part consciousness-building.

It began at 8:30 a.m. with schoolwide, hourlong relevant discussions led by each grade's cultural history teacher, after which students were given the option to participate in the march or return to their regular classes. Those marching met back in the main building, where they signed petitions and made posters. A voter registration table was set up for eligible students.

A guided meditation followed, led by Cathy Yun, the dean of wellness. Joe Kugelmass, an English teacher, then offered a short workshop intended to create a roadmap for successful conversations about gun control, instead of simply taking sides and talking past each other, the teacher said.

At around 10 a.m. about 60 middle and high schoolers then marched for 17 minutes through the wooded pathways that cut through the sprawling campus.

Every single seventh grader, the youngest class on the upper campus, had signed up to march, Caleb wrote in an email. "I was shocked and moved," he said.

The Ross middle and high school student body is made up of day students and boarders from more than 25 countries. With many dressed in orange -- the color that is now synonymous with gun protests -- they marched through the woods chanting "Stop gun violence!" and "Ban guns now!" A moment of silence was observed.

One Chinese 10th grader carried a sign with the name Peter Wang on it, in remembrance of the 15-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, a Chinese-American, who was shot while helping classmates escape the gunman who attacked their school in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. In recognition of his heroic act, Peter was posthumously accepted to his dream school, the United States Military Academy at West Point.

In contrast to the March 14 national walkout, in which students generally walked out and observed 17 minutes of silence -- one minute for each person killed at the Florida school -- many students were urged by the organizers of yesterday's National School Walkout to leave for the rest of the day's classes. Breaking up the school schedule, they believe, is necessary to get people's attention.

In Washington Square Park in Manhattan, students gathered and held a "die in" -- a protest in which participants lie down as if they were dead -- to demand action on gun reform.

Students across the country were not exactly unified on this walkout, especially since Columbine teachers and officials have pushed back against the protest, asking students to treat the day as one of service and not just a day to walk out.

At Marjory Stoneman Douglas, some of the students worked on acts of assistance on campus instead of actually walking out, the school's principal tweeted yesterday.

But at the Ross School, it was a single-minded show of solidarity with the national movement. According to Bill O'Hearn, the head of the high school, many of the student organizers were middle schoolers, and as several educators have pointed out in the current wave of teenage activism, organizing a walkout such as this is also helping to build the skills students will need to continue grassroots advocacy.

Unlike many schools that had warned students that they would be cited with an unexcused absence on their records for participating in yesterday's walkout, Ross students were granted excused absences. 

“I am [name redacted], one more immigrant in this great nation. Do you want to know my story? Okay, I’ll tell you.”

It is a harrowing story of a young boy who must say goodbye to his father as he leaves his country with his mother to make a covert crossing into the United States. 

“Son, and What If I Don’t See You Again?” and 14 other equally wrenching stories, all written anonymously by students at Central Islip and Patchogue-Medford High Schools, form “Brave Journeys,” an anthology of first-person narratives of teenagers leaving home — usually a country in Central America — and crossing mountains and rivers, by bus, train, car, and on foot, often alone and always scared. 

Herstory, a writers workshop and publisher dedicated to bringing unheard voices to the public’s attention, released “Brave Journeys” last month.

Erika Duncan, an essayist, novelist, and Sag Harbor resident, founded Herstory in 1996 as a weekly workshop at the Southampton Cultural Center to help women turn their private stories into gripping ones. Two decades later, the organization has grown into an Islandwide endeavor that, through grants from various foundations as well as the National Endowment for the Arts, has published a library of books and a prototype manual and DVD tutorial that details the workshop techniques. 

The stories in “Brave Journeys” originated during an English language learners class in Central Islip High School, where Dafny Irizarry, an E.L.L. teacher in the district for 24 years, first met all but two of the students featured in the book. It was December 2016, and the group of young people had recently made their harrowing crossings into the U.S. Their pain was acutely visible, the teacher said.

“Since it was almost Christmas, I asked them to write about something that they were grateful for,” said Ms. Irizarry, who is the founder and director of the Long Island Latino Teachers Association and previously served on the Herstory board of directors. Unanimously, the students wrote about the joy of being reunited in America with a parent or loved one, she said. 

“We needed to give them a voice,” Ms. Irizarry told Ms. Duncan, although they recognized that anonymity would be necessary to protect either the children’s undocumented status or that of their families. With Helen Dorado Alessi, a Herstory-trained facilitator and translator, a weekly workshop was formed during Ms. Irizarry’s lunch period for those students whose schedules facilitated participation. During a dozen or so sessions, the stories took shape.

“Without doubt,” Ms. Irizarry writes in the epilogue of “Brave Journeys,” which will soon be available at Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, “this was my most meaningful project of the year.”

According to the International Organization for Migration, the number of migrants who died near the U.S. and Mexico border rose in 2017, as 412 migrant deaths were recorded, up from 398 a year earlier. Sixteen migrant deaths have already been recorded in the area so far in 2018.

“These are stories that moved and troubled us,” Ms. Duncan said of the 15 young authors featured in the book, “told by brave heroes who are being villainized today.” 

Their modern-day odysseys, printed in English and Spanish, serve as stark reminders of the astonishing courage and strength of many immigrant children and the exploitation of the business of border crossings, and as an indictment of immigration policy.

Here is an excerpt from “I Had to Do It,” written by a girl who left her country to be reunited with her mother, whom she had not seen in 12 years: 

“When I was 15 years old, I decided to come to the United States, because of the problems in my country and because I wished to have a better life. On the way, I suffered a lot. I never imagined it would be so hard. I walked a lot, barely ate, and suffered cold. I slept in the mountains, drank water from a puddle, which disgusted me, but if I wanted to quench my thirst, I had to do it. The only thing that gave me strength was the thought that soon I’d be with my mother.”

Many of the stories highlight painful partings with grandparents who are often the only parents these young children have known while their mothers and fathers live and work in America. Here, in “A Longed-For Reunion,” a young girl contemplates crossing the Rio Grande, which she must do the next day:

“When I’d think about having to cross the river, I’d get very scared because I’d heard that in that river many people have died. . . . ‘Run! The soldiers are coming!’ We ran out to hide. At the time, I had on sandals and couldn’t run well, so I took them off and kept running. But I felt stinging because there were thorns, but I continued until we found a place where we could hide. . . . When we got back, I began to pull out the thorns but there were so many and they hurt. A while later, the time to cross the river had come.”

Central Islip High School has been an ardent supporter and promoter of the “Brave Journeys” book, Ms. Duncan said, and Patchogue-Medford recently ordered 60 copies to use in its pre-Advanced Placement classes. But her dream, she said, “is to have the book in every high school in Long Island.” Maybe even colleges, and nationwide. 

“These children are living heroes,” Ms. Duncan said, and as such she believes that American students should be reading these stories alongside those about heroes from the Civil War and other historical events.

Indeed, in an era of hardened immigration policies, which sparked Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, to say that “the Statue of Liberty must have tears in her eyes,” these stories can serve as a reminder to young people of a country’s shared heritage as a nation of immigrants. 

From “When the Heart and the Mind Don’t Agree,” story number 13 in the book: “That’s how I came to say ‘goodbye’ to great parts of my life. The day I left my country I realized our souls are made of glass — as I looked at my country’s streets one last time, I could hear inside how my soul and heart shattered to pieces.”

Tomorrow, on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, thousands of students across the country are once again expected to rally against violence in an event called the National School Walkout, the third student-led protest since the Feb. 14 deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

The walkout is intended to commemorate the events on April 20, 1999, when two armed teenagers entered the Columbine school and in a shooting spree killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 20 others. The shooters then killed themselves.

The teenage organizers of tomorrow’s National School Walkout hope to continue the current groundswell of students demanding common-sense gun reform. According to the organizers’ website, the walkout begins at 10 a.m. in each time zone, when students will head outside, observe 13 seconds of silence to honor the 13 people killed at Columbine High School, and then leave school property. 

“This is a problem that needs to be addressed longer than 17 minutes,” Lane Murdock, a sophomore at Ridgefield High School in Connecticut, one of tomorrow’s organizers, recently told ABC News. She was referring to the first school walkout, on March 14, when students observed 17 minutes of silence in memory of the 17 victims of Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 

“Leaving and breaking up that schedule that all American students have every day is how you get people to pay attention,” Lane said.

In what some said was a surprise, however, Columbine High School administrators have pushed back against tomorrow’s walkout, reminding students in Colorado and across the country that the Columbine community has turned April 20 into a day of service, not protest.

At East Hampton High School, Adam Fine, the principal, said yesterday that students had not mentioned a protest and were expected in classes all day. At the Ross School in East Hampton, a survey generated by a student was emailed to students asking them to weigh in on participation, and requesting that those participating wear orange to show support for this particular walkout. 

In Montauk, a community event organized by the Montauk Community Church and St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church is planned for after-school hours, with Montauk residents encouraged to meet at 4:30 p.m. and walk to the hamlet’s gazebo. “Let’s come together for this important conversation,” a poster says.

More than 2,000 schools are registered to participate, with at least one in every state and several globally, according to the National School Walkout organizers.

April is Sexual Assault Prevention Month, and, as part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness of the issue and educate communities, the Retreat, a nonprofit advocacy organization and shelter for victims of domestic violence, will present Navigating Consent: A Sexual Abuse Prevention Workshop for high school students today from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. 

According to Helen Atkinson-Barnes, the Retreat’s education program manager, the workshop has been specifically developed for high schoolers. Through a series of informative discussions, teenagers will learn what consent really means, how to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy sexual practices, how to recognize when they, or friends, might be at risk, and risk reduction strategies. 

“We’ll cover important topics like being supportive of a victim instead of victim blaming,” said Ms. Atkinson-Barnes. “It’s not okay to say things like, ‘He or she must have asked for it.’ Also, we’ll cover bystander intervention, nonverbal cues, and how to set boundaries.”

Only high school students will be admitted to the workshop. They will receive community service hours and free pizza. 

In addition, Wednesday is international Denim Day, a campaign borne from a ruling in the 1990s by the Italian Supreme Court in which a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. 

Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of protest against the misconceptions and destructive attitudes about sexual assault. As part of the Retreat’s ongoing rape prevention education program, the organization is asking community members, elected officials, businesspeople, and students to make an important social statement by wearing jeans on Wednesday as a visible means of protest against sexual assault. 

Photos and selfies of people dressed in jeans on Wednesday can be posted on the Retreat’s Facebook page as well as sent to the organization via Twitter or Instagram.

“The issue of sexual assault has always been relevant,” said Loretta Davies, the executive director of the Retreat. “But this year with MeToo and everything that’s going on, it’s especially important to bring the issues to the public’s attention.”

Adam Osterweil, an eighth-grade English language arts teacher at the Springs School and a Springs resident, has published “The Creepy Dungeon,” his sixth book, which reads more like a game. Young readers can embark on an interactive adventure full of puzzles and challenges that can be completed on the book’s website. 

“They have to make decisions, battle monsters, explore, collect treasure, and solve puzzles,” Mr. Osterweil said. “The goal is to make it down to the deepest level of the creepy dungeon, where an ancient blue dragon guards a treasure room full of rare and valuable items.”

“Welcome, brave adventurer,” reads the opening page. “You are about to take a journey that is filled with danger, monsters, treasures, and mysterious places.”

Mr. Osterweil will sign copies this evening and during the second period tomorrow at the school’s book fair, which ends tomorrow, said Debra Winter, the school’s superintendent. He will also show students a website where they can easily report on the outcome of their adventures. A running total will display how much gold and treasure all Springs School students have gathered from the dungeon.

A complete selection of Mr. Osterweil’s books is available for sale at the book fair.

Montauk School’s proposed budget for 2018-19, approved by the school board last Wednesday, is almost $19.8 million, up from this year’s $18.8 million. 

The difference of about $970,000 is mainly due to an $800,000 proposed payment into the school’s capital reserve fund, which the district hopes to use next year to replace its aging portable units.

“The portables were supposed to last 10 years,” said Jack Perna, Montauk’s superintendent and principal for the last 23 years. “But we’ve had those four units since 1973. It’s time for them to go.”

Mr. Perna also arrived at the Montauk School in 1973, first as a fourth-grade teacher, then as the assistant principal, and finally becoming principal and superintendent in 1995. He said he is currently the longest-serving superintendent in Suffolk County and has no plans to go anywhere quite yet.

He discussed the school’s enrollment for 2018-19, which appears to be about the same as this year. “We’ll have 27 eighth graders graduate this year and so far, we’ve got 29 prekindergartners signed up for next year,” he said. However, he pointed out that 12 years ago the school had a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade enrollment of 425 while today’s prekindergarten-through-eighth-grade total is 306.

“Property prices have driven away families,” he said. “There’s no place here to live affordably.” It is a topic he said he has had many conversations about with town officials.

Following the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Mr. Perna had informed the community that he had hired an outside firm called Blue Line Protection, which employs retired police officers, to patrol the Montauk School. 

On Monday, the school announced that it will be accepting bids for “armed security services” to be present at the school. However, the budget does not indicate any additional cost for these security services because, Mr. Perna explained, the school had actually budgeted for increased measures after the 2012 shooting in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. 

“I never wanted us to be the school that said, ‘we didn’t ever think it would happen here.’ ” In fact, the superintendent said, a study of the Sandy Hook school and the demographics of that small suburban town revealed that the Montauk community mirrored those statistics almost identically. 

As a result, two unarmed officers currently take turns patrolling the school each day. One is a retired New York City cop, the other a retired East Hampton officer, Mr. Perna said. 

“We always have one security officer here from 7:45 a.m. to a little after 3 p.m.,” he explained, before adding, “It’s a sad reality that we have to even think about this stuff.”

As for the budget, of the $19.8 million, approximately $17 million will need to be raised by taxes, a 1.04-percent increase over this year.

Mr. Perna does not anticipate any issues getting the budget passed on May 15. “Montauk is a very supportive community,” he said.

Lee White is the only member on the school board who will appear on the ballot for re-election. He will run uncontested.