The East Hampton School Board unanimously adopted its 2016-17 budget proposal, in the amount of $66,721,301, during an eventful Tuesday night meeting in which it granted tenure to several teachers, hired a teacher for what had been a difficult-to-fill position, hired a transportation consultant, heard about the long-standing Sandpebble Builders lawsuit, and learned that four candidates will vie for three open school board seats at the district’s annual meeting on May 17. J.P. Foster, Rich Wilson, and Wendy Geehreng, incumbent board members, are seeking re-election, with Alison Anderson the fourth candidate.

If approved by voters, the budget would raise spending by less than 1 percent, and stay within the state-mandated cap on tax increases. The tax levy, $48,986,823, would be .68 percent higher than this year’s. The final figures were the result of weekly workshops the school board held since January in which it went over each section of the budget line by line. Richard Burns, the superintendent, said district administrators were sensitive to the constraints of the tax cap law, which this year kept increases near zero for most South Fork school districts.

“In one way, it’s almost like we’re getting used to it,” Mr. Burns said. “We know we can’t have outlandish proposals. We’re lucky in that we didn’t have to cut any programs for students. We’re very fortunate that way.”

About 20 veteran teachers and staff members who had decided to retire boosted the budget outlook. Their positions are expected to be filled by those who are younger and make less money. As a result, the district will save nearly $422,000 on salaries, a decrease of about 1.3 percent. The payroll will be about $32.17 million, which accounts for the bulk of the district’s tax levy. Board members said retirements left room in the budget for  more equipment, new sports uniforms, and the like.

The teachers who were tenured on Tuesday were  Cara Nelson, a middle school social studies teacher, Nicholas Finazzo, a middle school math teacher, Devon Parkes, a high school social studies teacher, and Erik Hamer, a high school foreign language teacher, along with Robert Hagan, the district’s director of learning, technology, and instruction.

The board hired Urban Reininger as its computer-coding teacher, a position the board had been trying to fill for about two years. Mr. Reininger has 17 years experience as a coding teacher in private schools and is awaiting final certification from New York State to teach in a public school. Robin Jahoda, a part-time high school English teacher, was made full-time.

The school board also hired School Source Technologies to examine its bus routes to make sure they are as efficient and as cost effective as possible. The  firm will be paid $30,000, and the work is expected to be done by September. “This guy’s incredible,” Robert Tymann, the assistant superintendent, said. “He has done work with many other districts. . . . I’m looking forward to seeing the results. I’m sure we’ll see a significant savings.”

With regard to the Sandpebble lawsuit, Mr. Burns  announced that May 9 had been set for jury selection. There have been several delays in moving the case to trial, including one due to the assignment of a new judge toward the end of 2015. Sandpebble, which is based in Southampton, is suing the district for $3.75 million, alleging East Hampton wrongly terminated its construction contract in 2006. East Hampton claims that it hired a different builder because the scope of the construction increased.

Although initial reports indicated there might be a big drop, on the South Fork, in the number of students refusing to take state tests in English and math for grades three through eight this year, when testing began, on April 5, the numbers corresponded to the moderate increase elsewhere on Long Island.

The tests are used to measure student proficiency and how well they are grasping the Common Core curriculum. Refusals last year were fueled by parent complaints, among them that the tests weren’t age-appropriate and were too long and stressful, and by the fact that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had enacted a law tying 50 percent of teachers’ evaluations to test results. The New York State Board of Regents eventually put a moratorium on its effective date.

As a result of statewide complaints, this year’s exams were shorter and students were given more time to complete them. The number of students opting out in local districts varied widely, with Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor having the highest percentages. Amagansett, where only three students refused the English tests and seven refused the math tests in 2015, and which reported none just five days before the English tests were to begin, eventually saw 14 students opt out. With 59 eligible students, that’s about 23.7 percent. Eleanor Tritt, the Amagansett superintendent, said by email this week that “we do not know at this time how this will impact the growth scores calculated by the state.”

In Springs, Eric Casale, the school principal, reported that refusals came in at about 25 percent of the 460 eligible to take the math tests, or 115 students, and 23.7 percent of the 450 eligible to take the English tests, or 107 students. That’s up from 79 of 465 students opting out last year, or 16.9 percent.

Montauk’s opt-out numbers were also up this year. Five days before English tests were to start, only two students had submitted refusal letters. In the end, however, out of the 205 eligible to take the English tests, 40 opted out, or 19.5 percent. Out of 212 eligible to take the math tests, 51 opted out, or 24 percent. Last year, the overall number was about 17.3 percent.

Out of 80 students in Bridgehampton who were supposed to take the tests, 35 students opted out of English tests and 38 opted out of math. That is about 43.7 percent of students in English and 47.5 percent of students in math. This year, only four of the 17 students in the fourth grade class took the tests, and in fifth grade English, only three out of the 12 students took the test. Last year, it was 15 total out of 67 students, or 22.4 percent.

 In East Hampton, Richard Burns, the superintendent, said the district had received just four refusal letters in the days leading up to the tests. Eventually, however, 94 students opted out of the English tests out of 659 eligible, or 14.3 percent, and 101 opted out of math, or 15.3 percent. Last year, the numbers were about 9 percent opting

out of English tests and 15.2 percent opting out of math tests, out of 669 eligible students.

“We’re hoping that the tests created really are authentic assessments of kids’ skill levels. Unfortunately, the implementation is flawed. I think it’s getting better, but I’m truly expecting more from the state,” Mr. Burns said.

In Sag Harbor, where the teachers association had endorsed opting out as a way to demand change, one-third of all students in grades three through eight opted out of the math tests and 34.2 percent opted out of the English tests this year. That translates to 149 out of 447 students in math, and 165 out of 482 students in English. Initially, about a week before the English test was to begin, Katy Graves, the superintendent, reported only 26 students had handed in refusal letters. The final numbers are mostly consistent with last year.

“I do think that why we didn’t see those numbers spike any higher is that some of the calls have been answered, that they have seen incremental changes like the extended time, the shortening of the tests, and starting next year the tests will be teacher-driven rather than big-company-driven, which is a sigh of relief for all of us,” Ms. Graves said yesterday. “I think our teachers unions are still pushing.”

The Sagaponack School declined to say whether any students opted out, because its student population is so small that doing so might inadvertently have identified them. No students at Wainscott, a similarly small school, refused the tests.

Based on its own survey last week of 106 Long Island districts, Newsday reported close to 88,000 students opted out of the math tests. The week before, Newsday surveyed 108 districts and found more than 89,000 students refused to take the English tests. Both of those figures were up from last year, when Newsday reported more than 66,000 students in 99 districts refused the math tests and 72,000 in 110 districts refused the English tests. When comparing districts that responded both last year and this year, Newsday found a rise of about 9 percentage points in English and about 6 percentage points in math.

Fifteen of the Ross Lower School’s littlest students raced around the school’s playground on Tuesday cradling potted seedlings in their small but capable hands. They were charged with an important task: Finding places to plant them among the gardens at the edges of the playground.

Last week, Bryan Smith, one of the school’s science teachers, helped students in the pre-kindergarten and nursery classes make the biodegradable pots using layers of recycled paper pulp, in which they planted various native flowers. By Tuesday, to the students’ delight, their seeds had sprouted, and right after they finished finding spots to plant them, the weather changed from cloudy to rainy. Just in time, Mr. Smith said, to nourish the sprouts.

The activity was meant to nourish the students’ understanding of the world around them, and it was part of the Ross School’s Earth Day celebration. Every grade took part in hands-on projects that were an extension of the students’ everyday curriculum. At the Ross Lower School, the students — even the youngest ones — spent Earth Day weeding in the gardens, making birdbaths, planting a pollinator garden, tending a milkweed garden to attract monarchs and other types of butterflies, and finding other ways to beautify the campus. 

“We really, truly feel that we need to create global citizens and foster global awareness, at a very young age; that starts locally,” said Junellen Tiska, the school’s co-director of curriculum and professional development. The activities were meant to emphasize to the students that “we are responsible for the care of our surroundings.”

The milkweed garden has what monarch butterflies need to thrive, and the pollinator garden includes plants such as honeysuckle, black-eyed Susans, daffodils, and purple coneflowers. Ms. Tiska said the birdbaths, which the students made out of clay pots using a pattern she found on the Internet, were a particularly fun project. Mr. Smith hopes the improved gardens will attract enough birds, bugs, and other creatures to the lower school campus that it may gain status as a National Wildlife Federation certified wildlife habitat.

The lower school students also worked on an organic snack garden. Once it bears fruit, Mr. Smith explained, it will be “a place where the kids can walk in and grab a sugar snap pea or pick another snack that they grew themselves.” It will feature crops such as strawberries, asparagus, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, and string beans.

“There’s always something going on in our natural space,” he said.

Jamie Laggis, one of the school’s early childhood teachers, said even at that level, the students are learning about sustainability. For example, she said, the students come to realize paper does not have to be thrown away. Even if they can’t draw on it anymore, they can recycle it for other purposes.

“We use the word ‘sustainability’ and explain that it means caring for the Earth, recycling, and not wasting anything,” Ms. Laggis said. “We ask them to come up with their own definitions of the word so that it would have more meaning for them.”

Mr. Smith said the children respond well to the types of lessons they learned on Earth Day.

“We have a goal, a purpose,” he said, “but they’re pretty naturally excited for it.”

CMEE Feria

With the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo just around the corner and lots of people thinking about the food and culture of our neighbor to the south, the Children’s Museum of the East End will celebrate the Latin cultures of many other neighbors to the south during a fair on Saturday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. There will be music, art, games, and food. Entry is free, but visitors must buy $5 tasting tickets to sample the food. 

CMEE will host an after-school Star Wars party on Wednesday from 3:30 to 5 p.m., with Lego projects, Jedi crafts, and Wookie cookies on offer. Entry is $17, $5 for members.

Meet the Animals

Children and their caregivers have been invited to meet the animals of the Amaryllis Farm Horse Sanctuary during Mommy (or Daddy) and Me programs on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to noon, starting this week. 

Families can visit with the horses, goats, and ducks, and learn about ponies and how farm helpers groom and feed them. Pony rides and feeding baskets for the small animals are also an option. The farm is at 864 Lumber Lane in Bridgehampton. The parent-child program will be offered through November. Registration is by email to [email protected].

Open Studios at John Jermain

The John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor will host open studios for sixth through eighth graders on Saturdays from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Kids can use supplies provided by the library or take their own art project. Snacks will be provided; reservations are not necessary. 

Backpack in the Swamp

Kids 5 to 7 can head into the Wolf Swamp preserve on Saturday for a backpack adventure with the South Fork Natural History Museum, and on Sunday those 9 and older can hone their forensic skills. 

At Wolf Swamp, participants will make leaf rubbings, search for songbirds and ducks with binoculars, and use magnifiers to examine nature’s smaller glories. The fun begins at 10 a.m.

The Sunday workshop at 10:30 a.m. will have older children using their observations skills and wildlife knowledge to identify a number of found objects as they search for clues to “solve a wildlife mystery,” according to the museum. 

Reservations are required for both. 

The East Hampton School District will open up prekindergarten registration on Monday, with a deadline of May 20, to sign up children who will be 4 by Dec. 1.

The school district has 54 seats available in its full-day prekindergarten program at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, and has advised residents that if more than 54 children sign up, a lottery will be held on May 25 to determine who receives a seat.

Registration will take place in the school district’s central offices at 4 Long Lane. Hours are Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 3 p.m., and Wednesdays from 1 to 6 p.m.

The East Hampton School District website, ehufsd.org, has the application forms and other required documentation, all of which are printable. More information can be obtained by calling Amanda Hayes at 329-4145.

The 2016-17 school year will be the second year the district has had a full-day prekindergarten program. The district recently renewed its contract with the early childhood center for another year.

The Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center will continue to provide the East Hampton School District’s full-day prekindergarten program, but should demand exceed capacity, district officials warned Tuesday that a lottery format would be used to select students for the program.

The school board approved a contract for 54 students to attend the Eleanor Whitmore Center’s pre-K at a cost of $9,100 per student, for a total of $491,400. If more than 54 sign up for the program, the district will go to a lottery system in which each child will be assigned a number and numbers will be drawn at random. In the case of twins or siblings of the same age, one number will be assigned to the two children together, so that if that number is drawn, two classroom seats would be provided.

“I want to be very clear about that. . . . There’s no first-come, first-served basis,” Richard Burns, the superintendent, said before the contract was approved.

This time last year, East Hampton approved its first contract with Eleanor Whitmore for full-day prekindergarten for 54 students, but eventually saw more than 60 students enroll when registration opened in May. After a brief time in which a waiting list was established, all of the students who signed up were eventually accommodated in the program. That may not be the case next year.

“We’re trying to communicate it more clearly,” J.P. Foster, the school board president, said Tuesday.

Registration for prekindergarten will run from May 2 through May 20 this year and will take place in the East Hampton district office. More details will be forthcoming from the district as it finalizes the days and times parents may come in to sign up.

East Hampton chose the Whitmore Center over the Country School in Wainscott, which also responded to a recent open request for prekindergarten proposals. Representatives of both schools made presentations to the school board in March. According to Isabel Madison, East Hampton’s assistant superintendent for business, the Country School initially proposed a tuition rate of more than $10,000 per student, but was later willing to match Eleanor Whitmore’s rate. The Eleanor Whitmore Center, formerly called the East Hampton Day Care Learning Center, operated the school district’s half-day prekindergarten program for many years.

Mr. Burns said the district opted for Eleanor Whitmore because he and his colleagues “really felt very comfortable with their program, and their curriculum is already aligned very well with ours. We were very pleased with them, over all.”

Children who graduate from the Wainscott School, which goes through the third grade, will for the first time have the choice of going on to Sag Harbor or East Hampton schools.

“Each school district — Sag Harbor and East Hampton — has much to offer to your children, but each is different in its own ways,” Wainscott School Board members wrote in an April 2 letter to residents. The district is planning sessions for parents to meet with representatives of both districts. A proposition to offer students choices about where to continue their schooling will be on the district ballot in May.

 Tuition payments represent a little more than one-third of Wainscott’s annual operating budget. In an email, David Eagan, the Wainscott School Board president, said the possibility of saving money was  one factor that prompted the board to sign contracts with both districts. “Sag Harbor’s significantly lower tuition rates and fees for busing made this decision very easy,” he said.

However, he also said the decision “was driven primarily by the opportunity to offer our students enhanced educational opportunities. Some of our families, particularly those located in the northern part of the district, have asked us to consider the choice of schools over the years.”

Wainscott had sent all its students to East Hampton in the past, and in recent years had enjoyed a 5-percent discount on tuition. However, when the tuition contract came up for renewal last spring, Wainscott declined to sign it. A town affordable housing project had been proposed within its borders, and school officials said its unknown effect on the district precluded signing an exclusive five-year contract. After the housing plan was dropped, Wainscott officials asked East Hampton if they could sign the exclusivity contract in exchange for the discount. East Hampton officials said no.

“While East Hampton’s elimination of the 5-percent discount was not a driving factor in our decision, it certainly eliminated our last remaining justification for not providing choice to our families,” Mr. Eagan said.

East Hampton’s base tuition for general education students is $25,830 in grades seven through twelve, whereas Sag Harbor’s is $23,269. For special education in those grades, East Hampton’s base tuition is $71,711, while Sag Harbor’s is $56,082, although that does not include costs of related services.

 In grades four through six, East Hampton’s tuition is $28,877, whereas Sag Harbor’s is $17,900. For special education, East Hampton’s rate is $74,758, and Sag Harbor’s is $48,784, plus related services. In addition, Sag Harbor has agreed not to increase tuition by more than 2.5 percent per year.

 Richard Burns, East Hampton’s superintendent, said on Tuesday that he and his colleagues had not yet discussed how much impact Wainscott’s decision will have.

A second contract between Wainscott and Sag Harbor, for transportation, will add $247,500 to Sag Harbor’s revenue. Jennifer Buscemi, the Sag Harbor business administrator, explained during an April 4 budget work session that the added revenue would allow Sag Harbor to begin financing new and replacement buses, including one for sports games, a wheelchair accessible bus, and those used to take Wainscott students to Sag Harbor or East Hampton schools. Previously, Wainscott contracted with the McCoy Bus Company on a year-to-year basis. Wainscott is expecting to save between $40,000 and $140,000 in the first year of the five-year agreement with Sag Harbor.

The Wainscott School Board has also adopted a 2016-17 budget for the May 17 annual vote.

The proposed budget is $3,036,916, which is actually $27,444 lower than the current year’s budget, with a tax levy of $2,336,916, or a decrease of 1.16 percent. If approved, it would be the fifth consecutive budget in which spending decreased, and the fourth in which the tax levy dropped. The budget  includes the salary of a new full-time teaching assistant, because the number of students is expected to grow from 21 to 29.

William Babinski Jr., whose seat on the school board expires June 30, is planning to seek re-election. Nominating petitions are due April 18, and so far no one else has picked up necessary forms to run for the school board.

Voting will take place at the Wainscott School  from 2 to 8 p.m.

Sportime’s Eight-Week Programs

The East Hampton Town Recreation Department and Sportime will team up to offer eight-week children’s clinics in flag football, inline skating, roller hockey, volleyball, soccer, and basketball starting next week.

Flag football for ages 6 to 12 starts on Monday from 5 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays bring inline skating for 4 to 9-year-olds from 5 to 6 p.m. and roller hockey for ages 6 to 12 from 6 to 7. A multisport program for 3 to 5-year-olds will start on Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. Volleyball for kids 11 to 15 will be on Thursdays from 5 to 6 p.m. On Saturdays it will be soccer for ages 5 to 12 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and basketball for kids 7 to 13 from 11 a.m. to noon. Each clinic costs $125 for the full eight weeks.

Registration is at the Sportime Arena on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett the first day of each program.

Looking ahead to the April school break, the Town of East Hampton will once again run its free morning recreation programs for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade. The programs will be offered from 9 a.m. to noon at the John M. Marshall Elementary School and the Montauk School from April 26 through 29. They are open to children of any school district. Sign-up is at the Montauk Playhouse or the Parks and Recreation Department in advance, or at the schools the day of the program.

Camp SoulGrow Grows

Camp SoulGrow, which offers workshops, adventures, and volunteer opportunities for children 7 and up, is expanding its base of operations. SoulGrow will soon open a downtown office and studio space in Montauk and a new outpost at Squiretown Park in Hampton Bays.

In Montauk, Bridgehampton National Bank had leased the nonprofit camp a 700-square-foot storefront space at 7 Carl Fisher Place for $1 a year. The camp’s founder, London Rosiere, is on the lookout for donations to ready the space for an opening later this spring. First on the wish list is new flooring to replace the worn carpeting, at an estimated cost of $3,800. Donations can be made online at campsoulgrow.org. Amounts above $25 are tax-deductible. Those who wish to be hands-on helpers will be welcomed with open arms, Ms. Rosiere said.

The space will be a year-round auxiliary to SoulGrow’s base at Third House in Montauk County Park, which is neither heated nor insulated for colder season activities. Ms. Rosiere plans to hold workshops there in the off-season and to use it as a more centralized meeting point in the summer.

The Hampton Bays location, in a Southampton Town park, will be the site of Tuesday and Thursday workshops in the summer. Opening day for that spot will be on April 27, a Wednesday during the upcoming school break, when events for kids 7 and older are planned for noon, 1:30, and 3 p.m. All Camp SoulGrow programs are free, with a suggested donation of $10 per child to help support the camp’s continued work. Registration is online. In other good news for the camp, it was the recipient last month of a $500 donation from the Montauk Lions Club.

The Importance of Windmills

The average drive from East Hampton to Southampton is enough to prove that windmills have long had a prominent role here on the South Fork. In an intergenerational program on Saturday geared toward grandfathers, dads, and grandkids, the Southampton Historical Museum will explore the importance of windmills on Long Island. After learning some of their history, families will get to work creating their own windmills out of Popsicle sticks.  The program will begin at 11 a.m. at the Rogers Mansion. The cost is $10 for adults, $5 for members. Children get in free. Reservations are required at 283-2494.

With an agenda in Spanish, signs in two languages on the school’s front door, and a pair of teachers who translated spoken English into Spanish, Monday’s Springs School Board meeting seemed to be a step forward in the relationship between the district’s administration and Spanish-speaking community.

Allegations had been made during previous school board meetings that the district was not meeting the needs of its Latino population, which represents 55 percent of the student body. Although parents, school officials, and teachers have refuted these complaints, reports have surfaced of students being asked to translate information for parents and of Latino families having to wait several weeks to register students for school even with proper paperwork in hand.

Last week, the school informed the community via its website that a translator would be provided at the next school board meeting, and that information also went out on Friday and Monday in bilingual  phone messages. The district also put the news in a radio announcement in Spanish.

During Monday’s meeting, which was attended by at least 15 parents with limited proficiency in English, two faculty members, Ana Jacobs and Lilliam Flores, served as translators. “I think it worked pretty well. The parents were very thankful,” Ms. Jacobs said after the meeting.

Eric Casale, the school principal, said the administration would sit down with Ms. Jacobs and Ms. Flores to discuss ways to make the effort even better. “We’d be moving backward if we weren’t moving forward,” he said.

During the second public comment portion of the meeting, Ms. Jacobs translated for Carmen Quituisacu, who thanked the school board for the service and other Latino parents for coming to the meeting. “It’s important to know what’s going on for the well-being of the children,” Ms. Quituisacu said as Ms. Jacobs translated.

Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organizacion Latino-Americana of Long Island, or OLA, a not-for-profit organization that promotes educational, cultural, social, and economic opportunities for the region’s Latino population, also spoke. She praised the effort, but  said she wished there had been more of an open discussion about it because “it did sort of feel like this secret, undercover thing.”

Ms. Perez said OLA has had “meetings with several Latino parents talking about some issues that they’ve had over the years” at the Springs School. She said the organization had formally brought matters to the school board “that are specifically against the New York State Board of Education regulations.”

Tatiana Tucci, a former bilingual clerk in the district, who had alleged during recent school board meetings that the district had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to meet the needs of some of its Latino families, made some comments aimed at the Spanish-speaking parents in the audience, but was told by Liz Mendelman, the board president, that it was not appropriate to address other members of the audience.

Later in the meeting Brenda Crozier, the school’s front desk greeter, took to the podium, responding to comments made during a previous meeting that she thought were defamatory. Directing her comments toward Ms. Tucci, she said, “I’ve always treated everyone the same. I believe in equality. . . . Never has it ever been said, implied, or reported that I have ever treated the Latin community differently until recently. I have never turned away, ignored, failed to greet, or . . . failed to help a person.” Ms. Tucci has filed a lawsuit against the district, alleging racial and ethnic discrimination and harassment while she worked there.

Ms. Mendelman did not scold Ms. Crozier  for speaking to another member of the audience.

In an email yesterday, she said that having translators at the meeting was “a good step forward” and that the district looks forward to continuing the effort.

“In addition to the several components that the district currently has in place to effectively communicate with our Spanish-speaking residents, we are always exploring additional ways to further enhance our communication efforts,” she said.

Also at Monday’s meeting, it was reported that the administration had pared down the 2016-17 budget so that it will stay within the state’s limit on tax levy increases. The annual district meeting and balloting will be on May 17.

Painting When School’s Out

Kids can explore a range of mediums and indulge their creativity at the Parrish Art Museum during next week’s school break. The museum will offer workshops from Monday through Friday, April 29, for kids 4 and older covering Impressionist painting, sculpture, portrait painting, perspective drawing, and abstract painting. Classes run from 10 a.m. to noon for kids 4 to 6 and from 1 to 3 p.m. for kids 7 and older. The cost is $40 per class, $30 for members. Advance registration is required.

Spring Break: Options Aplenty

To recap other spring break options mentioned in detail in previous issues: LTV in Wainscott and the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor have spring break camps planned and the East Hampton Town Recreation Department will offer a free morning recreation program at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton and the Montauk School.

The Bay Street musical theater camp is for ages 8 to 12 and will run all five days of the break from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the cost is $385 per child, and registration is with the theater. LTV’s design camp for ages 12 and up will give kids a chance to try their hands at skateboard deck design, cartooning, Polaroid photography, and button design. It meets Monday through next Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon and costs $150 per day or $500 for all four; registrations are being taken at 537-2777. The town program, for kids of any school district, will run from Tuesday through Friday, April 29, from 9 a.m. to noon. Sign-up can be done at the schools each morning of the program.

Lego, Barbie, and Bars of Soap

At the John Jermain Library in Sag Harbor, kite making, Legos, Barbies, and chickens will fill the schedule next week. Kids 7 and up will make newspaper kites on Monday at 11 a.m. On Tuesday, a Lego League for ages 5 and up gathers at the library at the same time, and on Wednesday at 11, it’ll be the Barbie Bunch for ages 3 and up.

The Cornell Cooperative Extension will explore the life cycle of chickens during a program on Friday, April 29, for ages 5 to 12. Advance registration is requested for that one and the kite program.

Over at the Amagansett Library, kids in first through third grade will make bars of soap on Saturday at 2 p.m. And well in time for Mother’s Day. Space is very limited and advance sign-up is a must.

Decorating Dog Treats at CMEE

Saturday is Pet Appreciation Day at the Children’s Museum of the East End. Visitors from the Southampton Animal Shelter will be on hand from 10 a.m. to noon. A dog treat decorating workshop runs from 10 to 10:45 a.m. for ages 3 to 6. The cost is $17 including museum admission; members pay $5.

Great Flicks for Children

There are movies galore on the schedule at the East Hampton Library this week. Today, it’s “Toy Story 2” at 4:30 p.m. “The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar” will be shown on Monday at 1 p.m. Next Thursday “Frozen” will blast in at 1 p.m. and “Monsters Inc.,” will be screened at 4:30. Teens have been invited to see a young-adult novel that has been adapted for the screen on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Kids in sixth through eighth grades will be offered a taste of snacks from around the world during a program on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. On Friday, April 29, little ones 4 and up will make prints from vegetable stamps during a workshop from 1 to 2 p.m.