A $2,000 donation from the Springs School PTA has enabled the school district to expand its library media program with the purchase of a three-dimensional printer and a related set of learning materials.

“It’s going to be awesome,” William Hallman, the library media specialist, said at the Dec. 14 meeting of the Springs School Board, when the PTA’s donation was announced. “The great thing about the printer is that it comes with a curriculum. It’s fun, but it’s not going to be just for fun.”

The printer is a Konica Minolta brand with a curriculum called STEAM Trax, which refers to “science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.” STEAM Trax includes kits for students in grades three through eight. Mr. Hallman said Springs will begin with kits for eighth graders and then add one grade per year after that. Examples of printer projects tied to lessons include making shells for hermit crabs and modeling coastal barriers such as seawalls for topographical maps.

“There are so many things you can do other than making figurines or covers for your phone,” he said.

Springs isn’t the first local school to acquire a 3-D printer. East Hampton has a MakerBot, and Bridgehampton owns two CubeX printers. Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz, who teaches robotics at the Bridgehampton School, said she has found that such printers “have been tricky to use” but are ideal for programs in design and robotics.

Mark Lappin, the president of the Springs PTA, said the money for the printer came from the recent book fair held in Springs. The district is contributing $1,200 toward the printer from its library budget. While Mr. Lappin said he himself has never had the opportunity to try out a 3-D printer, he said his son has done so at East Hampton High School and found it enjoyable.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Mr. Lappin said. “It’s also going to teach the kids coding. That’s one of the highest-paying jobs for kids once they get out of college these days.”

That the Springs School District is likely to ask taxpayers to approve a bond for repairs or the expansion of its school building became evident this week as officials said they were close to hiring a new architect and construction manager for a potential capital project. What to do about the overcrowded and aging building has been under discussion for two years.

Carl Fraser, the district’s interim business administrator, mentioned the possibility of a referendum multiple times during Monday’s school board meeting, and identified next fall as the potential time for it.

Liz Mendelman, the school board president, confirmed after the meeting that the district would probably have a bond referendum. She referred to a survey completed by members of the district’s facilities committee in September, which indicated strong support among its members for a referendum, although the committee did not present that finding to the board.

“The survey results show the group did reach consensus that we did need to go to a bond referendum. I think that gives us a good direction to move in,” Ms. Mendelman said.

While the facilities committee had briefly discussed capital projects estimated at costing between $15 million and $20 million during a series of meetings between May and September, Ms. Mendelman said on Monday, in response to a question, that no specific amount is on the table.

Eight architectural firms and five construction management firms replied to the district’s most recent call for proposals. Among the architects is BBS, the Patchogue firm that has already presented the district with some design concepts. Also among the firms that responded to the request was Sandpebble Builders, the Southampton company that has sued the East Hampton School District alleging wrongful termination of a construction contract.

Mr. Fraser said Monday that the timeline for choosing an architect needed to be pushed into February because he and other school officials spent a great deal of time interviewing six potential architects, more than had been anticipated.

“We’re doing our due diligence by bringing back three or four finalists for a second interview, doing field work with these folks, and also ensuring that the fees they have provided are in fact their best,” Mr. Fraser said. The firms’ references will also be checked and a “concept committee” is likely to begin looking at actual designs in March.

This discussion Monday night was followed by another contentious public comment session, during which some residents and a former employee clashed with others, including a former school board member, over issues such as fiscal transparency, allegedly harsh treatment of certain employees, the process by which the superintendent was hired and his salary and work record, and the overall tenor of the district and board meetings.

Similar to their reaction during the Dec. 14 school board meeting, the board and administration did not respond to controversial claims made during the meeting. Ms. Mendelman also declined to comment yesterday, citing confidentiality related to personnel and legal matters.

“Some people feel you are ripping them off . . . and it’s going to hurt our kids, so it better change quick,” said Debra Foster, a resident and former school board and East Hampton Town Board member.

Michelle Grant, a parent of two students, told the board that she had not heard negative things that other residents say are being bandied about. “I hear a lot of very happy people that are still happy with the school,” she said.

Tracey Frazier, a fifth-grade Springs School teacher who is married to the board’s vice president, Tim Frazier, said the situation was like a bad divorce. “I understand that in these personal issues that are being presented to us there are two sides. I hope they work it out,” she said. “ I think that the most important thing that this meeting, this community, this forum, deserve is respect and presenting both sides of the issues.”

“It may be a bad divorce,” Tatiana Tucci, a former clerical employee, told the school board and administration, “but your lack of transparency leads to a lot of issues. As an employee, I approached you with my concerns, and I was shut down and the doors were closed.”

John Grant, who in June finished his sixth year on the school board, defended his former colleagues. “The attitude, the way things are brought to the forefront here, and the way things are asked is impossible to comprehend,” he said. “There is not some conspiracy theory happening here. There are no agendas.”

An audience member interrupted him just then, saying, “How do you know?”

SoulGrow Hits Gurney’s

Camp SoulGrow will team up with Gurney’s Resort and Seawater Spa next week to offer kids 7 and older five days of activities inside and out. Swimming is on the schedule Monday. Tuesday brings baking with a Gurney’s baker. Fitness with the camp’s founder, London Rosiere, is on tap for Wednesday, and skating at the resort’s outdoor rink will be offered next Thursday. On Friday, Jan. 1, kids will have the chance to take part in or help out at Gurney’s polar bear plunge, beginning at 10:30 a.m.

All other programs begin at 11:30 and run for an hour and a half. Advance registration is required online at campsoulgrow.org. There is a suggested donation of $10 per program. 

Art for the Break

Kids 4 and older can keep busy with a series of art workshops Monday through next Thursday at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. Students will focus on landscape painting on Monday, on collage and mixed-media work on Tuesday, portraits on Wednesday, and 3-D still lifes next Thursday. 

Sessions for ages 4 to 7 will be from 10 a.m. to noon. Those for kids 7 and older will run from 1 to 3 p.m. The cost is $40 per session, $30 for members. Advance registration is required. Wednesday’s afternoon session for older children is sold out, but some space may be available to those on a wait list. 

Calling Calder

Mobiles, puppets, and snow globes are on the schedule for kids 4 and up next week at the East Hampton Library. Children will look to the work of Alexander Calder for inspiration in a mobile-making workshop on Monday at 1 p.m. On Tuesday at 2 p.m. they can make felt hand puppets and put on a puppet show. They will make a snowy scene inside a globe on Wednesday, also at 2 p.m. Advance registration has been requested for all programs. 

Lego League, Barbie Bunch

At the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, kids 5 to 12 can join in a Lego League on Monday from 11 a.m. to noon, and those 3 to 9 can be part of the Barbie Bunch on Tuesday at 11. A short New Year’s Eve party for all ages next Thursday at 11:30 will offer games, dancing, goodies, and a classic countdown, this one to noon as opposed to midnight. 

Puppet Circus

The Tanglewood Marionettes will present “The Family Circus,” a puppet show featuring more than 20 handmade characters, on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. This Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre presentation has a run time of 40 minutes. Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased at the Bay Street box office. 

Now, Two Ball Drops

Sunday is Waffle Day at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. Kids will make their own brunch from 10 to 11 a.m. The cost is $20 including admission, $7 for members. 

The museum’s annual New Year’s Eve Ball Drop has become so popular that this year there are two sessions next Thursday — one from 10 a.m. to noon and a second from 1 to 3 p.m. The party features an explosion of confetti and a countdown. Entry is $10, but members get in free. Advance reservations are a must.

The Greater East Hampton Education Foundation has awarded more than $13,000 in mini-grants to teachers in the Springs and East Hampton School Districts to fund a wide variety of projects ranging in scope from technology to international culture to social skills and more.

“The committee and the board found the grants to be of very high quality,” Laura Molinari, a foundation board member, said during the Dec. 14 meeting of the Springs School Board.

In Springs, Paige Morehead, Patricia Philbar, and Whitney Reidlinger received $1,250 to develop an Inclusion Club “to foster and increase social interactions in a really natural and fun way” between students in the special education and general education programs, the teachers said. Jodie Hallman received $1,100 to purchase board games that emphasize social skills, which will also be available for students to take home on weekends.

Also in Springs, Rob Walker and Frank Cole received a $2,000 grant to purchase Lego robotics and coding curriculum materials, and Christine Cleary, the school’s vice principal, received $1,500 to launch a family math night program. Angelina Modica and Colleen McGowan also received a $2,000 grant for a “drum language” program that will allow them to buy African drums and supplies to make traditional African clothing and accessories, intended for future student performances.

The foundation also supported Springs School’s functional academics class, which emphasizes practical skills and career-oriented tasks. Kristi La­Monda, its teacher, received $350 to build “task boxes” with the pre-vocational class, which will focus on the assembly-line process and other job-related skills. Ms. LaMonda and Bill Hallman, the library media specialist, also received a $1,100 grant to build “little free libraries” with the class, which will set up and monitor miniature lending libraries at school bus stops.

In the East Hampton School District, Karen DeFronzo, who runs the Garden Club at John M. Marshall Elementary School, received $1,132 to purchase a composter for the school garden. During the Dec. 15 meeting of the East Hampton School Board, Ms. DeFronzo said the composter will go a long way toward helping the school expand its garden program.

“The children are going to be involved in the creation of the compost by collecting [material] in the lunchroom. They’ll weigh it, check the temperature, and add carbon and nitrogen,” she said. “It’s science and math-based, and the science teachers will be working along with the Garden Club. We’re looking forward to making great compost for our garden.”

Lorna Cook, also a faculty member at John Marshall, received a $979 grant to pilot a new social skills program. Project Most, an after-school program that serves students in both East Hampton and Springs, received $2,000, coming from the Tyler Project, a local organization that supports youth mental health initiatives, for an anti-bullying program that will have students working together to create a mural at John Marshall.

Teresa Talmage, president of the foundation, said during the Dec. 15 East Hampton School Board meeting that the organization had raised about $19,000 this year thanks to its generous donors and has opened up the application process for a second round of mini-grants. The deadline for those applications is Jan. 15. More information may be found online at gehef.org/grants.

The East Hampton School District has rejected the Wainscott School District’s late request to sign a multiyear contract that would give Wainscott a discount on student tuition in exchange for an agreement to send all of its children to East Hampton after they finish schooling at Wainscott.

All of East Hampton’s other sending districts signed that same contract in the spring, but Wainscott declined to do so at that time because of what its officials said was uncertainty attached to the 48-unit affordable housing complex that had been proposed within the school district’s boundaries. School officials fought that proposal, saying it would have overwhelmed the tiny district’s financial resources and space in its two-room schoolhouse.

But in recent months, the Wainscott housing proposal was taken off the table. Town officials voted earlier this month to endorse an affordable housing project in Amagansett by a separate agency, the East Hampton Housing Authority.

During the Oct. 6 town board meeting, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said the Wainscott project “may not be moving forward as proposed” by Windmill Village Housing Development Fund Corporation, the group that developed the St. Michael’s senior citizens housing in Amagansett and the Windmill complexes in East Hampton. Gerry Mooney, the co-manager of those housing complexes, said yesterday that the corporation had been given a definite “no” on Wainscott.

During the Dec. 16 meeting of the Wainscott School Board, David Eagan, its president, said the reason the district asked East Hampton for a new chance to sign the tuition contract was that “we have a more certain view of what our population is going to be.”

The contract would have given Wainscott a 5-percent discount on the tuition rate, which this year is just under $25,000 per student for general education students in 7th through 12th grades and about $26,700 for those in kindergarten through 6th grade. For special education students, the rate is just under $69,000 per student in 7th through 12th grades and just over $73,000 in kindergarten through sixth grade. During the 2014-15 school year, Wainscott paid tuition for 34 students attending East Hampton schools.

“We would like, subject to the boards’ further discussions, to go back to the traditional arrangement, to sign on to what was offered to us in the first instance,” Mr. Eagan said. “I think everyone has a better view of things right now. . . . Affordable housing was a key factor that we were deeply concerned about. That clarity has allowed us to go back to, for lack of a better word, join the club.”

 However, Rich Burns, the East Hampton superintendent, said by email on Dec. 17 that “at this time, the East Hampton board is not amenable to this extension.”

 J.P. Foster, East Hampton’s school board president, explained yesterday that “it’s kind of hard for us to do anything different” because each of the sending districts had been given the same opportunity to sign the five-year agreement at the same time.

“We had offered everyone the same deal, and because of budgeting we had to have a commitment. We had to know by a certain time,” Mr. Foster said. “That’s really all it came down to. . . . I don’t know how else to do it.”

Stuart Rachlin, Wainscott’s superintendent, said Mr. Burns had informed him of such. In response, he said in an email that “we’re hoping that East Hampton will reconsider, especially since our initial ‘no’ response was not a dissatisfaction with East Hampton as much as our inability to commit in light of the housing issue.”

 Margaret Moody Puppets will take the show “Badger Meets the Fairies” to Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Saturday at 11 a.m. In the 40-minute performance, which is best for children 4 to 10, Mr. Badger helps his new fairy friends build a playground.

The show is presented by the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre, which now operates out of Bay Street. Tickets cost $15 and are available at the theater’s box office.

Shell Search

Crystal Possehl will lead families on a beach scavenger hunt in search of common and more unusual shells on Saturday at 10 a.m. on Long Beach in Noyac. Sign-up in advance is required with the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton.

A winter story time at the museum at 10:30 that morning will include a reading of Jane Yolen’s “Owl Moon” and a craft. Children 3 to 5 have been invited to go in pajamas. There will be a $3 materials fee in addition to museum entrance.

Upcycling

At the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton, kids 7 to 12 will use old bottles to make “upcycled” containers on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Beads and an iron will result in some nifty pins or magnets in a program for children 4 and older on Friday, Jan. 8, at 4:30 p.m. Advance registration has been requested for both.

Winter Wrestling

Joe Russo will be the instructor for a winter wresting program at East Hampton High School for boys in second through eighth grades. The program, offered through the East Hampton Town Recreation Department, will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. through March 3, with a one-week hiatus during the February break. It begins on Jan. 5. The cost is $40. Advance registration is required at 324-2417. Mr. Russo can be reached with questions at 329-6633 or 903-0017.

The Sag Harbor School District is one step closer to adding a distance learning program to its course offerings.

Katy Graves, Sag Harbor’s superintendent, announced during Monday’s school board meeting that the district recently signed an agreement giving it access to an educational videoconferencing system hosted by the Otsego Northern Catskills Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

The cost will be about $15,000 per year, plus the initial investment of setting up dedicated classrooms at the elementary school and the middle and high school with the needed infrastructure. A mobile cart will also be equipped with technology needed for distance learning so that teachers can share the resources.

Ms. Graves said yesterday the set-up cost is not yet known, but that it will come from the $171,000 grant Sag Harbor received through New York State’s Smart Schools Bond Act. The district will then have access to about 50 courses taught remotely by teachers around New York State plus additional programs such as virtual field trips, career-specific conferences with industry experts, and collaborative projects, along with professional development options for teachers.

“This broadens children’s worlds,” said Ms. Graves, who served for many years on a statewide distance learning committee while she was a teacher and administrator in other New York school systems.

In January, Ms. Graves said, a group of high school teachers will head upstate to tour several schools already doing distance learning to learn how it works. She said she envisions Sag Harbor being able to save money on teacher training, particularly when it comes to the ever-changing training needs of students who are not native English speakers, by limiting the number of times teachers have to travel long distances for training. Ms. Graves also said she envisions distance learning as a community resource that could allow first responders such as emergency medical technicians and volunteer firefighters to complete training courses that also might have involved traveling long distances.

Tami Fancher, the distance learning coordinator for Otsego Northern Catskills BOCES, said by phone Tuesday that the videoconferencing program began 25 years ago with a closed analog system for 10 schools but has evolved into an Internet-based system that will serve 24 schools by the start of the 2016-17 school year. Currently, she said, the courses have about 600 students who come from school districts from all over New York, some with enrollments as small as 101 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The distance learning program requires two 68-inch TV screens, with appropriate cameras, plus a teacher’s computer station. Textbooks are provided by Otsego Northern Catskills BOCES, except for “consumables” such as workbooks that cannot be reused by other students. Laboratory materials are also paid for by individual school districts, with lab sessions facilitated in several ways. Class sessions can be recorded and distributed to students who were absent or need to review lessons.

Ms. Fancher said Sag Harbor will have access to virtual field trips, collaborative programs, and professional development this school year but will not be able to take advantage of the actual courses until next year. That is because the scheduling of those courses takes place in December.

“We offer electives to college-level courses and high-level Advanced Placement courses, right across the board,” Ms. Fancher said. “It’s not replacing what the school is doing, it’s just adding more flexibility. . . . [Students] are able to take courses they wouldn’t normally be able to take.”

Community members, former Springs School employees, and current staff members took sides during Monday night's school board meeting in a heated exchange over two issues: a lawsuit being filed against Springs by its former district clerk and what several community members allege are questionable circumstances surrounding the hiring and work record of the superintendent.

Fran Silipo, the former district clerk, filed a notice of claim in October intending to sue the Springs School District after she was not reappointed to the position of district clerk after 13 years in that role. In the notice of claim, she says she was the victim of a hostile work environment, retaliatory conduct, and wrongful termination. The school board was within its rights to appoint someone else to the position of district clerk, which is a year-to-year appointment that Ms. Silipo held from 2002 to 2015, but she has said she believes she lost that post in an unfair and misleading manner.

During Monday's Springs School Board meeting, a number of people spoke up in support of Ms. Silipo's claims, saying she was treated horribly, and extended their grievances with pointedly negative remarks about the superintendent, John J. Finello. They questioned the process through which Mr. Finello was hired, took issue with his salary, suggested he is not working full-time as his recently approved contract requires, and said the district is losing the trust of its taxpayers.

"I really am appalled at the way things are going," Terry Miller, a Springs resident who recently moved back to the area from Massachusetts, said. "Things are very toxic in this room. It needs to change and you better start thinking things over."

After many of the negative remarks were made, Manny Vilar, a Springs resident, told the school board it has "a major public relations problem."

"The assessment that you've lost trust in the community is very, very real," he said.

Mr. Finello did not respond to those comments during the board meeting Monday, and could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning. Liz Mendelman, the school board president, said only that the district cannot respond to legal claims publicly.

Multiple staff members on Monday night defended Mr. Finello, calling him hardworking, fair, and professional, and said the climate at the school is excellent.

"The lawsuit being discussed in the papers has no merit and is utterly frivolous," said Adam Osterweil, a current Springs teacher and resident. He urged the district to fight Ms. Silipo's claims in court rather than settling out of court, which he said would needlessly cost the residents of the district.

"Keep doing the great job that you are doing," Mr. Osterweil told Mr. Finello and the school board. "You will hear negative voices along the way. Rest assured the silent majority supports you."

Margaret Garsetti, another Springs resident and teacher whose son attended the school, called the meeting "a clinic for intimidation."

"People are coming up very angry. People have the right to bring emotion to it," Ms. Garsetti said. "Since there seems to be a lot of discussion about the tone and the trust and the public relations — I want to make it very clear that I'm in the trenches, I teach kindergarten through eighth grade -- I can tell you that the tone and the trust in my opinion has been of the utmost quality. I appreciate people who bring high standards."

Ms. Mendelman eventually said the late hour — the meeting ran past 9 p.m. — prompted her to close the public comment session and ask her colleagues for an adjournment to the meeting, despite the fact that at least one more person had raised her hand wanting to address the board.

Update: Later on Tuesday, John J. Finello declined to comment.

Punch and Judy, Mixed Nuts

In “Christmas Punch and Judy,” the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre’s Liz Joyce and A Couple of Puppets will put a holiday twist on the classic story of Punch and Judy, a pair of puppets who have been married for centuries. When Mr. Punch starts pitching in around the house, a domestic disaster results, but all’s well that ends well. Show time for this family-friendly production for ages 3 and up is 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Tickets are $15 with discounted subscription tickets available.

Also at Bay Street this weekend, the young dancers of Studio 3 in Bridgehampton will present “Mixed Nuts,” a “musical theater mash-up of holiday books,” Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 7 p.m. Advance tickets cost $20, $15 for students and senior citizens, at 537-3008. Tickets at the door will be $25 and $20.

A Snow Globe of Your Own

An interactive read-aloud of “Tracks in the Snow” by Wong Herbert Yee will be followed by a lesson on how to make snow globes at the Children’s Museum of the East End on Saturday from 10 to 10:45 a.m. Materials will be provided for kids age 3 to 6 to make their own miniature winter wonderlands to take home. Admission is $19, $7 for member, and advanced sign-up is requested.

Cookie Monster

Cookies in the shapes of snowmen, reindeer, and more await the enthusiastic decorative touch of children at the Montauk Library’s holiday cookie decorating session on Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. As space is limited, advance registration is required.

Halloween Plus Christmas

For teens, the East Hampton Library will screen Tim Burton’s film “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in 3-D on Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m. The movie, which is rated PG, tells the story of Jack Skellington’s journey to bring the magic of Christmas to his kingdom of Halloween Town.

Mystery Bag Challenge

On Sunday, those who accept the John Jermain Memorial Library’s Mystery Bag Challenge will get a bag full of random supplies that they will use to build a “contraption that will carry a marble from one point to another.” The fun, which begins at 2, is for ages 6 to 12. Advance sign-up is requested.

The latest Springs School enrollment report shows that it may be at least one elementary classroom short next year.

Eric Casale, the school principal, analyzed the data and trends during Monday night’s school board meeting, and offered an opinion: The time has come to explore options such as sending another grade to a different school or moving some administrators off campus, at least until the district is able to reconfigure the building or build more space. Springs prekindergartners are now housed at the former Most Holy Trinity School in East Hampton.

“We’re not going to be able to get from point A to point B in a year,” Mr. Casale said. “We need to get through this obstacle until space is available to us.”

The school now has 22 large kindergarten-through-fifth-grade classrooms, counting Springs Youth Association buildings and modular classrooms outside the main building. The school is most likely to need 23 or 24 large classrooms next year, according to Mr. Casale, who noted that the English as a new language program was likely to need more space.

A wild card is the current second grade. Students are divided into three sections, but there were four when they were first graders. Growing second-grade enrollment this year, along with requests from parents and teachers, prompted administrators to hire an extra second-grade teacher. There are now 75 second graders, and if that number continues to grow, the grade would have to be split into four sections. But, Mr. Casale said, there would not be a classroom available for the fourth section.

Springs School used to have two computer labs, but one was converted into a regular classroom in the 2014-15 school year when a bilingual kindergarten was established. Mr. Casale also analyzed the use of smaller classrooms for programs such as speech therapy and resource room, and what he calls specials, such as art, library, and music. He found that in 2012-13, 7 classrooms were shared by 8 teachers for specials, while 8 small classrooms were shared by 12 teachers for other programs or grades. This year, 6 classrooms are shared by 14 teachers for specials and 9 small classrooms are shared by 17 teachers for other programs and classes.

Springs, which has been grappling with its space problem for at least two years, has 726 students in kindergarten through eighth grade this year, and enrollment is projected at 740 next year. The district has 85 more students than it did four years ago. Seven new students enrolled in the past week alone.

“It’s so obvious that our school is bursting at the seams and growing,” Tim Frazier, the school board vice president, said. He suggested the administration explore staggering the time that school starts for different groups of students.

“You are in the process of negotiating your teachers’ contract. That may be a clause in the teachers’ contract that you may want to negotiate,” Mr. Casale replied.

When Barbara Dayton, a school board member, asked whether Most Holy Trinity School would have room to accommodate more students, John J. Finello, the superintendent, said Most Holy Trinity does have some classrooms available, but that sending additional grades there would involve a number of concerns, including access to a school nurse and transportation.

“We’ve tried to avoid that over the past couple of years by finding every nook and cranny we possibly can,” Mr. Finello said. “We’re getting to the point where if these kinds of numbers continue up, it won’t be just find one classroom. It could be find two or three.”