The Ross School’s annual Live at Club Starlight fund-raiser is approaching, with G.E. Smith, Joan Osborne, and Robbie Wyckoff scheduled as the evening’s rock ’n’ roll entertainment.

The event is in its 12th year, with proceeds benefiting the Steven J. Ross Scholarship Fund. It is set for May 9 at the upper school’s Center for Well-Being, starting with a cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m.

“I hope the event solidifies the energy of the Ross community,” said Perry Babcock, the school’s director of institutional development. “It’s a wonderful time to unite our community around what is at the center of the founders’ principles — creating an educational experience for everyone.”

Tickets start at $300 and are available by calling the development office at 907-5500 or by emailing [email protected].

State education law dictates that each school district hold a public hearing on the budget proposed for the next school year before voting on the budget takes place.

In East Hampton, the hearing will take place on Tuesday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m. in the district office, 4 Long Lane. In Montauk, the hearing will also be on Tuesday, May 5, at 6 p.m. at the school, 50 South Dorset Drive.

Sag Harbor’s hearing will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, in the library of Pierson High School, 200 Jermain Avenue. Wainscott’s will be on Wednesday, May 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the school, 47 Main Street.

The Bridgehampton hearing will also be on Wednesday, May 6, at 7 p.m. in the school gym. The Bridgehampton School is at 2685 Montauk Highway.

Springs, Sagaponack, and Amagansett will hold hearings the following week. In Springs, the hearing is scheduled for May 11 at 6 p.m. at the school, 48 School Street. In Sagaponack on that same day, it will begin at 7 p.m. at the school, 400 Main Street. And in Amagansett, it will be on May 12 at 6:30 p.m., at the school, 320 Main Street.

Voters registered in the respective districts will go to the polls on May 19.

Family Fun Day

The Peconic Family Fun Day, an environmental carnival at the Children’s Museum of the East End on Saturday, will celebrate the area’s ecosystems and estuaries with games, arts and crafts, and other activities from 10 a.m. to noon.

The event, now in its sixth year, is cosponsored by a long list of organizations, among them the Group for the East End, South Fork Natural History Museum, the Peconic Land Trust, Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, Sylvester Manor Education Farm, the Ross School, Amaryllis Farm, Southampton Hospital’s Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center, and the East End Community Organic Farm.

 They will offer programs to encourage water management, recycling, and environmental stewardship and awareness. There will also be live animals, a seed planting station, tastings, and music.

Also on Fun Day

Across the Sag Harbor-Bridgehampton Turnpike at the South Fork Natural History Museum, family nature walks are planned for 10:30 and 11:15 a.m. that day. All Peconic Family Fun Day activities are free.

Also on Saturday, at 2 p.m. Crystal Possehl of the South Fork Natural History Museum will lead a family forest walk at the Stony Hill Preserve in Amagansett. Participants will search for flowers and insects, make leaf rubbings, and examine their finds under magnifying glasses.

Back at the museum on Sunday at 10 a.m., spring awakenings will be the subject of a program for 4 to 6-year-olds. They will learn about animals and plants that emerge from long winter’s naps and search for some of them in the field behind the museum. Advance registration is requested for this workshop and for the afternoon walk on Saturday.

Rounding Up Young Cowgirls

Kate Mueth and the Neo-Political Cowgirls will launch a new Young Cowgirls Theater Company on Saturday at Guild Hall. Through dramatic exercises, games, journaling, and improv, among other activities, girls 8 to 13 will explore issues they care about while creating their own short dance pieces.

The company will gather on Saturdays from 10 to 11:30 a.m. through May 23; on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on May 6, 12, and 20, and on May 24 at 10 a.m. in advance of a final performance at noon that day. The cost is $200 per person, or $180 for members of Guild Hall. Registration is with Jennifer Brondo at [email protected] or 324-0806, extension 25.

Puppets in Montauk

Liz Joyce and a Couple of Puppets from the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor will head to Montauk on Saturday. The puppeteer will present “King Midas” at 2 p.m. at the Montauk Library. Admission will be free.

At Gansett Library

At the Amagansett Library, Sarah Shepherd, an herbalist, will work with children from 3 to 12 to make spring sachets on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Advance registration is required as space is limited.

Those in second grade and above can make their own mini books at the library on Sunday at 2 p.m. and Monday at 3.

And Hampton Library

Kids 12 and older will use old book pages to decorate boxes on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton. Tuesday brings a Cinco de Mayo celebration of Mexican culture from 4 to 5 p.m., with a sampling of the music, art, and food of our neighbors to the south.

In a workshop tomorrow at 4:30, kids can make sun catchers to decorate the windows at home.

And John Jermain Library

You can’t be a superhero without a mask, can you? Kids 3 and older will make superhero masks for a hero of their own design on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. And there will be free comic books for those who take part.

On Sunday, children 6 to 10 who are learning to read will have a chance to practice their skills and build confidence by reading to Keiko, a trained service dog. Appointments can be made for short reading sessions between 1 and 2 p.m.

CMEE Feria

The Children’s Museum of the East End will celebrate the area’s Latin cultures with a free fair on Saturday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. There will be music, art projects, and performances. Tasting tickets, offered at $5 apiece, will let people sample a number of Mexican and Central and South American specialties. Reservations have been suggested in advance as space is limited.

Earlier in the day, kids 3 to 6 can make wind chimes during a family workshop from 10 to 10:45 a.m. Rossa Cole will lead an Earth Day mural-making workshop for older kids ages 7 to 10, also starting at 10 a.m. The cost for each is $20 including museum admission, or $7 for members. Advance registration has been suggested.

Healthy Kids

A Healthy Kids Day at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon will double as an open house for the Y’s summer camp program. While kids enjoy games and other fun, parents can learn about the camp program, costs, and discounts available for early registration.

Reduce, Reuse

Earth Day may have passed, but its themes endure in a family program at the Amagansett Library on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. After a story about reusing and recycling, families will use old game pieces, paper, and packing materials to make their own rain sticks.

On Sunday at 3 p.m., kindergartners through sixth graders can illustrate a poem of their own or one by someone else to mark National Poetry Month.

El Dia de los Libros

The Montauk and East Hampton Libraries both have bilingual Spanish-English celebrations of books planned this week. Montauk’s, on Saturday at 2 p.m., will also offer a sampling of the music and dance of different countries. In East Hampton, kids 4 and up can enjoy a story and craft on Tuesday from 4 to 5 p.m.

Next Thursday in East Hampton, a Sensational Science program at 4 p.m. will have kids 5 and older exploring photosynthesis. Advance sign-up has been suggested for the East Hampton programs.

Yarn Crafts

Yarn will be the medium of choice at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton tomorrow and Tuesday. Kids of all ages will learn to make yarn paintings tomorrow from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. On Tuesday, those 7 to 12 will create yarn-wrapped letters from 4 to 5 p.m. Advance registration has been requested.

The future of the in-school swimming program at John M. Marshall Elementary School is unclear, with the East Hampton School District attempting to change it and a former teacher and longtime school board member fighting to preserve its spirit.

In its current form, the program pulls children in kindergarten through fifth grade out of class and into the pool at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, which is just across the street from the school. The kids get a 45-minute swim lesson four times per school year, which includes not just swimming techniques but also education about water safety in general.

Richard Burns, the school superintendent, says the district is retooling the program — not discontinuing it — by offering the school-day sessions for kindergarten classes only, and then sponsoring a two-hour after-school swimming program, with an instructor’s salary possibly paid for by the school district.

But John Ryan Sr., a former East Hampton teacher who sat on the school board for 18 years, says the district is effectively dismantling what he described as a highly important swimming program. One of his sons founded the in-school program six years ago, and Mr. Ryan said its effect has been to “waterproof” local children by introducing them to swimming and water safety.

According to Mr. Ryan, schools in Amagansett, Bridgehampton, Springs, Sag Harbor, Wainscott, Tuckahoe, and Southampton, along with some local early-childhood centers, also take advantage of the in-school swimming program at the RECenter. For many kids, he said, particularly those who don’t live in homes that have pools, these are the only swimming lessons they will receive.

“For our school system to drop this program or really curtail it . . . it’s just devastating, I think, and dangerous,” Mr. Ryan said.

Mr. Burns said the key issue was not the value of the program but its academic cost. The students lose too much valuable classroom time, he said.

“It’s an hour and a half of instruction the week they’re scheduled for swim,” he said. “From an educational standpoint, I just don’t find that tenable anymore.”

He later added, “I look at it as fine-tuning. We’re trying to re-establish parameters again for how to be successful [with the program]. We certainly support kids swimming, to say the least . . . in no way are we interested in axing the program.”

Another issue, Mr. Burns said, is supervision in locker rooms. Most of the supervising teachers are female, and they cannot go into the boys’ locker room.

Mr. Burns said an after-school swim program would be just as valuable. Mr. Ryan disagreed. “The pool will be jammed with kids,” he said, interfering with proper instruction.

Both men agree that the current program should be modified to fit into physical education periods rather than class time. But Mr. Ryan said he wanted assurance from the school district that it will live on for the other grades, not just kindergarten, and he is running again for a seat on the school board to try to preserve that component.

“I want to work with the system,” Mr. Ryan said. “I like the system. I think they’re doing a great job, but they’re wrong in doing this. Until I am satisfied with this particular solution, I am going to push.”

Residents of the Wainscott School District could potentially see their school taxes drop for the third year in a row if the school’s proposed $3.06 million budget is approved by voters.

Just how large that decrease will be depends upon the results of town property tax assessments, which will not be finalized for several months yet. But next year’s budget, which the Wainscott School Board adopted unanimously on April 15, is the fourth straight budget that includes a decrease in spending and is the third straight budget that includes a decrease in the tax levy.

Stuart Rachlin, the district’s superintendent, called it “a fiscally responsible budget,” and David Eagan, the school board president, said, “It’s safe to say, cumulatively, there’s no district on Long Island” that can claim decreases in spending and in the tax levy in that many consecutive years.

“That highlights the positive side of the uniqueness of our district,” Mr. Eagan said.

The decrease in spending is approximately $50,000 and will be made up using reserve funds, school officials said during the meeting on Wednesday. Rather than increasing the tax levy by about 3 percent, which is what Wainscott’s limit was under the state tax levy formula, the school district chose to decrease it by about 2 percent.

According to a line-by-line budget breakdown, Wainscott’s adopted budget adds $2,000 for library supplies and $5,000 for a robotics program. It also includes about $4,000 for a Board of Cooperative Educational Services program that will digitize the school district’s records, a service that Mr. Rachlin said is needed because the school is running out of physical space for its records.

The school will spend about $31,700 less next year on its contract with Mr. Rachlin, who works part time, and it will spend about $20,600 more on salaries for its full-time and part-time teachers. Spending on employee benefits for administrators will decrease, while benefit costs for the teaching staff will increase. The amount Wainscott pays for the school nurse, psychologist, and other health-related services will collectively decrease by more than $20,000, while the amount the district pays for utilities is expected to increase by about $1,000.

Wainscott residents will have a chance to vote on that budget on May 19 between 2 and 8 p.m. at the school building at 47 Wainscott Main Street.

The Ross School on Monday announced the appointment of two new administrators following what its current leadership described as “two very thoughtful and exhaustive searches.”

Chris Angell, who has extensive experience as a teacher and administrator in private schools in Florida and Massachusetts, will succeed Patty Lein as the head of Ross Upper School. Bryan Rosenberg, a former Ross Global Academy teacher in New York City, has been appointed to the newly created role of assistant head of the lower school.

Mr. Angell currently serves as assistant head of school for academics at CATS Academy Boston, a high school for international students. According to the Ross School announcement, Mr. Angell previously held several positions at Saint Edward’s School in Vero Beach, Fla. During his 22 years there, he taught language arts and history for 4th through 12th grades, coached boys’ varsity basketball, served as director of college counseling, worked as the head of the social sciences department, and served as head of the middle school. He has also taught English and American history and culture in China. He holds degrees from the University of Vermont and New York University.

According to the Ross School announcement, Mr. Rosenberg was a founding faculty member at the School at Columbia University, where he taught the third and fifth grades. He later joined the Ross Global Academy, where he held positions including lead middle school teacher and director of curriculum. Mr. Rosenberg is working on a doctoral degree at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, where he researches “the political economy of schools, the politicization of popular cultural spaces, and the mobilization of youth.” He has also held doctoral research assistant positions and is co-writing a book on the connection between lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender social change and pop culture.

Future meet-and-greet opportunities will be scheduled with both new administrators, the Ross School said.

The Sagaponack School District, which educates children in first through fourth grade in its own school and sends those in the higher grades to neighboring districts, has announced plans to provide early childhood education in the next two years. In the 2015-16 school year, a kindergarten class will be added and the district will pay tuition to send children to half-day pre-K programs in nearby school districts. The following year, it will drop fourth grade, sending those children to neighboring districts.

Alan Van Cott, Sagaponack’s superintendent, said the proposed $1,772,505 budget had been adjusted accordingly, with $25,000 for kindergarten equipment and supplies and $42,000 for tuition for a projected six students to attend prekindergarten in Sag Harbor or at the East Hampton Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center. Details of the latter arrangement are to be discussed by administrators, he said, because the Eleanor Whitmore center will have a full-day pre-K program next year.

“We have existing staff to cover the implementation of kindergarten,” Mr. Van Cott said Friday, noting that teachers will develop the kindergarten curriculum over the summer. “We will see ourselves as an early primary school, so we’re going to equip ourselves that way.”

Mr. Van Cott described the move to an early childhood focus as “natural.” Sagaponack is projecting enrollment of about 13 students in kindergarten through grade four next year. Its enrollment this year is 11, while the school is built to house about 16 children.

“It’s a special place, and we can really personalize education,” Mr. Van Cott said.

The Sagaponack School Board also recently approved new tuition agreements with the East Hampton School District, including a one-year contract for grades five and six and a five-year contract for grades 7 to 12.

Most local school board members whose terms expire in June are seeking re-election, but some face opposition.

Monday was the deadline for prospective school board candidates to file nominating petitions. There will be contested races in East Hampton, Amagansett, Montauk, and Sag Harbor.

In East Hampton, four candidates are running for three positions. Liz Pucci, Christina DeSanti, and Deme Minskoff are running as a slate to retain their current seats. John Ryan Sr., a former board member, is seeking a return to the board.

In Sag Harbor, five candidates are running for three seats. Tommy John Schiavoni and Chris Tice, current board members, are seeking re-election. James Sanford, Stephanie Bitis, and James Ding each hope to win a seat on the board. David Diskin, a current board member whose term is up, is not seeking re-election.

Mary Lownes hopes to keep her seat on the Amagansett School Board, but faces a challenge from Steve Graboski.

Similarly, Diane Hausman, the board president in Montauk, will face off against Carmine Marino Jr.

In Springs, Barbara Dayton is running unopposed. A first-time candidate, she would take the seat being vacated by John Grant.

The Bridgehampton School Board president and vice president, Ronald White and Lillian Tyree-Johnson, and Doug DeGroot are all running for reelection without opposition.

Kelly Anderson of Wainscott and Joseph Louchheim of Sagaponack are both running unopposed to keep their seats.

The school board elections and budget votes are scheduled for May 19 in districts across New York State.

Jack Perna, the superintendent of the Montauk School District, was among those who responded Monday at a League of Women Voters of the Hamptons forum on potential school mergers, sharing his vision for the consolidation of all the districts on South Fork.

“I’d rather see a larger merger than just East Hampton or just Southampton,” Mr. Perna said. “I’d rather see the two towns on the whole fork merge. . . . We could make a bigger difference that way.”

Mr. Perna was not alone at the forum in supporting consolidation. Chris Dyer, superintendent of the Tuckahoe School District, and Scott Farina, superintendent of the Southampton School District, said they still favored merging their  districts, even though their voters had differed on whether a merger should take place. Voters in Tuckahoe, where taxes would have decreased, overwhelmingly favored a merger; voters in Southampton, where taxes would have increased, did not.

By pooling student populations, resources, space, and ideas, Mr. Perna said programs could be expanded and new ones begun. He suggested that a regional system could establish specialized high schools, for concentrations on science and technology, the humanities, or the performing arts. He also said it would ease the pressure that paying tuition puts on the small districts, such as Montauk, Amagansett, and Springs, that send students to high schools in other districts.

“I’ve been saying it for a long time,” Mr. Perna said after the meeting. “I’ve talked to BOCES [the Board of Cooperative Educational Services], but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere.” Because state law  requires people in both communities to vote to approve a merger, Mr. Perna said, “as long as the state doesn’t change the law, I don’t think it will ever happen.”

Two feasibility studies had concluded that a merger between Tuckahoe and Southampton would be beneficial. “The merger was going to be a win-win,” Mr. Dyer said. “We were going to have educational opportunities for our kids, and we were going to have fiscal responsibility for our taxpayers.”

Now, Mr. Farina said, the conversation has shifted. “I think we need to start behaving in a way as if we are participating in a merger through shared services. There certainly are ways that districts can get together. . . . Until we get over that hump of the taxpayers voting for mergers, I think we need to do that.”

The Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor Districts, which have their own high schools, were also represented at the forum.  Katy Graves, the Sag Harbor superintendent, said yesterday that Mr. Farina was on the right track. “As we share more services, it will develop more trust and more successes, and I think that’s the route we need to go. The mergers concern people because we haven’t developed that trust yet.”

“We need to recognize the traditional model of having separate little districts . . . really doesn’t bring us quality education,” Mr. Dyer said.

Julie Lutz, chief operating officer of Eastern Suffolk BOCES, reported that 30 school districts in the state had studied mergers since 2010, but none had moved ahead. “I firmly can say that I believe, and I think we have good evidence, that we can provide better educational programs for students with many more economies of scale” if districts are merged, she said.

New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who also took part in the forum, said that a bill that would allow small districts to form regional high schools was making its way through the Legislature. Suffolk County also has a law that allows centralized high school districts, he said.

According to Mr. Thiele, centralized high school districts have not been favored by the New York State Education Department, although it may be willing to take another look. “The regional high school bill would allow existing school districts to join together and not give up home rule, but enter into an agreement to provide for a regional high school which could have a separate governing board.”

Discussion of school district consolidation is not new on the South Fork. In 1992, a Suffolk County panel suggested that 14 districts between Westhampton Beach and Montauk be joined into one or two larger districts. State officials, including then-Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, urged six of seven local districts, excluding East Hampton, to combine into one or more.

In 1997, however, a state study of consolidation of the East Hampton, Montauk, Springs, and Amagansett districts concluded that neither a merger nor a centralized high school district was financially feasible. Such a merger was again broached in 2002, when representatives of the Montauk, East Hampton, and Amagansett districts met to discuss it. At the time, Mr. Perna was behind a centralized high school district, while Dominic Mucci, then superintendent of the Springs School District, favored studying the possibility.