Project Most, a nonprofit after-school program for elementary students in East Hampton and Springs, has established a new scholarship committee that aims to “ ‘scale up’ the mission of Project Most so more and more kids can participate,” Lisa Rana, the president of the organization’s board, said in a release.

The committee is the brainchild of Kyle Lynch, an attorney with Bainton Lynch in East Hampton, who will serve as its chairman. Mr. Lynch approached the board after learning that the after-school program, which serves over 300 children at the John M. Marshall Elementary and Springs Schools, gives out more than $100,000 in scholarships each year. “Project Most cannot go away; it is vital to the future of East Hampton’s youth,” Mr. Lynch said in a release.

As its first project, the committee is planning a fund-raising dinner to be held on July 27 at the East Hampton studio of Roy Nicholson, an artist, with food prepared by Joe Realmuto, John Delucie, and Jim Botsacos. Details are still being finalized.

Students of the Strings

Student string musicians age 8 to 18 have been invited to join the virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman and the East End Arts Student Orchestra in an open rehearsal conducted by Mr. Perlman on July 31 at Southold High School.

While there are no auditions for the free program, which is a collaboration between the Perlman Music Program and East End Arts, advance registration is required by July 12. Violin, viola, cello, and double bass students can find registration forms at eastendarts.org, by emailing [email protected], or by calling 369-2171. Young musicians will play for the public on July 31, but will rehearse in Riverhead at the East End Arts School on July 14, 21, 28, and 30 from 4 to 6 p.m.

In the Children’s Studio

The Children’s Studio, a series of weeklong indoor and outdoor workshops at the Art Barge on Napeague, will focus on portraits from Monday through Friday, July 11. Classes are for young people 9 to 13 and run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. The cost is $500 per week or $475 for members of the Art Barge or the Museum of Modern Art.

Nature and landscape will be the subject from July 14 to 18 and Aug. 18 through 22, and abstraction is the theme for July 21 through 25 and Aug. 25 through 29. From Aug. 11 to 15, instructors will revisit portraiture. Advance registration is required.

Bubbling Potions, Special Effects

Mad Science Long Island will present fire and ice shows promising “spectacular chemical reactions, cinematic special effects, bubbling potions, and more” on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Hampton Library and at 3:30 at the Amagansett Library. Those who attend should come prepared to volunteer!

A Hampton Library story time on Monday morning at 10 has an added bonus for parents: It will be in the gardens at the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack! Today at 2 p.m., kids 12 and older can join in a sun-print art workshop.

At the Amagansett Library, weekly movies for families and teens continue today, Wednesday, and next Thursday. The family selections are “Mary Poppins” today at 3:30 p.m. and “Despicable Me 2” next Thursday. “The Book Thief” will be next week’s Wednesday night teen movie, starting at 6 p.m. Snacks are provided.

Kids 4 and older can listen to some classic stories by Richard Scarry, then take part in some learning activities that include reading and math skills on Monday from 11 a.m. to noon.

Reservations have been requested for the programs.

Memory Jars and Fish Prints

The South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton will have plenty to keep kids busy this week. Tomorrow in East Hampton, Nicole Cummings will lead kids in creating memory jars from things found at the beach. A session for 3 to 5-year-olds starts at 10 a.m. There’s another one for kids 6 to 8 at 2 p.m. The materials fee is $4.

A family workshop on Saturday at 10 a.m. will involve making fish-print T-shirts. The charge is $10 per person. The museum has suggested wearing a smock or old shirt.

Kids 6 to 9 will learn about aquatic plants in our local water ecosystem, then use some of them to make art on Sunday at 10 a.m.

Finally, on Wednesday at 10 a.m., Crystal Possehl will bring out her story-time puppet, Lodo the River Otter, to read Kathleen V. Kudlinski’s “What Do Roots Do?” Afterward, they’ll plant seeds and do a root craft. The materials fee for this one is $3. Reservations are required for all programs.

Shock waves went through the East Hampton School Board meeting Tuesday night when it was learned that Patricia Hope, one of the board's most outspoken members, had resigned.

"Due to compelling personal and professional circumstances, I find it necessary to withdraw from membership on the East Hampton School Board, effective immediately," Ms. Hope wrote to Kerri Stevens, the district clerk, in a letter dated July 7. The letter concluded: "It has been an honor and pleasure to serve the community as a member of the Board of Education, and to work with the consummate professionals in our district office."

For the past year, Ms. Hope had served as president. On Tuesday night, most expected to see her continue in that role, which she so clearly cherished. Instead, Richard Wilson, a board member, promptly nominated James P. Foster, who is called J.P., as its next president. Mr. Foster received unanimous backing, as did Christina DeSanti, as vice president.

"It's sad and shocking," said Richard Burns, district superintendent, at the conclusion of the two-hour meeting. "It's a total surprise for everyone." During an executive session that began at 5:30 p.m., Mr. Burns said they had tried to call Ms. Hope, hoping she would reconsider.

"I love the district. I've spent exactly half my life in that building," Ms. Hope said Wednesday morning. She said she plans to focus on a compilation of essays and  writing. "I can't lead both a public life and a private life at the same time."

"It's a mystery and very sad," said Liz Pucci, the outgoing vice president. "She was the most dedicated president I've ever seen. She poured her heart and soul into it."

"The decision was surprising and unexpected," said Claude Beudert, who teaches at East Hampton Middle School and attended Tuesday night's meeting. "Pat has always been a dedicated person in all aspects of her life. I'm sure there are good reasons for her decision."

In May, Ms. Hope and Jackie Lowey, who each sought second, three-year terms, won wide support, receiving 531 and 535 votes, respectively. Ms. Lowey was sworn in on Tuesday. Looking ahead, though it has yet to be formally decided, Mr. Burns said the board is likely to appoint a seventh member, who will serve a one-year term. He said that convening a special election would be too costly.

During the rest of Tuesday's organizational meeting, board members pored over a 13-page agenda. Among the highlights, board members chose committee assignments, and accepted the resignation of Tracee Van Brunt, a foreign language teacher, effective Aug. 31. The board also appointed Robert Hagan as director of learning technology and instruction, effective July 1. He will receive an initial annual salary of $158,000.

Come September, the district will also bring in Robert Eldi and Douglas Schumacher, computer science consultants, to help with curriculum development and expanding the district's coding course offerings. Each consultant is to be paid $800 a day. not to exceed 12 days for the 2014-15 school year.

On Wednesday, Ms. Stevens and the board issued a joint statement. "We were surprised and saddened by Pat's decision to resign from the Board," it read, describing her as an "ally" and "valued friend," who brought "passion, experience, and dedication to the job." It concluded by stating: "It is our hope that she will be in a position to reconsider her resignation. However, we all have a life beyond our Board of Education responsibilities and we respect and understand that she may have personal circumstances that preclude further service at this time."

Shortly after adjourning the meeting Tuesday, Mr. Foster tested out the wooden gavel for the first time. "How'd that feel?" asked Mr. Beudert, one of two remaining audience members. "Great," Mr. Foster said.

The board will next meet on Aug. 5 at 6:30 p.m.

Voters in the Sag Harbor School District are casting ballots Tuesday on the $36.8 million budget for the 2014-15 school year and deciding between four candidates for three positions on school board.

Hoping to keep their seats, Theresa M. Samot, the current school board president, and Sandi Kruel are seeking their fourth terms in office, while Thomas C. Ré and Diana Kolhoff are looking for a seat at the table. Mary Anne Miller decided not to seek re-election. The terms are for three years each.

Ms. Kolhoff, a math educational consultant who works as an independent contractor, has lived full time in Sag Harbor for five years and on the East Coast since 2000. A Utah native, she and her husband, Randy Kolhoff, have two daughters in first and second grades at Sag Harbor Elementary School. They own Black Swan Antiques. Ms. Kolhoff also coached volleyball at Pierson for four years until last year.

Having worked as a teacher for 12 years before starting a family, Ms. Kolhoff said she brings a vast knowledge of the education system. This is the first time she has run for elected office, and she said she hopes to help find creative ways to keep all programming without piercing the property tax cap in future years. “I don’t feel like I have an agenda,” she said. “I like to solve problems and I’m flexible when it comes to problem solving — I keep an open mind.”

Mr. Ré is familiar to voters, as his name appeared on theballot just last year, when he lost by 100 votes. An attorney, he has practiced for nearly 40 years. Though he has been visiting Sag Harbor for 21 years, he did not move there until 2009 when he closed his New York City practice, which focused on international law. He now has a general practice and lives just outside the village with his daughter, a 10th grader.

He cited three major areas of focus and their related financial implications: people, programs, and plant. He wants to help find alternate revenues for the district in order to maintain essential programs, and to craft a long-range budget. “With hard work we can come up with a three-to-five-year projection, even if it changes annually,” he said. He suggests “careful and studied examination of sharing additional services beyond what we have today, and including a multi-year study regarding the benefits to other districts to consider synergistic consolidation,” things that seem worthwhile “as more and more out-of-district students seek schooling in our district and pay for that possibility.”

His legal, business, and economic experience will be an asset to the board, he said. He said he has worked for for-profit and nonprofit organizations, as well as 28 foreign governments and the United States. He said he will offer an independent voice on the board. “I’m always willing to have an open mind.”

Ms. Kruel first served on the school board in 1999. She left in 2005 and returned in 2011. In between, she said, she remained a vocal, involved member of the school community. “I never stopped going to the meetings, whether it was with the PTA, the PTSA, the YARD program. I never let it up,” she said with a laugh. She has three sons, one of whom graduated from Pierson, another who is graduating this year, and a sixth-grader in the middle school.

She decided to come back three years ago because she was concerned about the 2-percent tax cap and the possibility of layoffs and program cuts. “We were so successful the last three years, collaboratively as a board, that there were no layoffs, better fiscal responsibility than ever before, and no program cuts,” she said, adding that the board settled four contracts in three years with the help of the union employees. “We’ve accomplished a lot and I’m proud of that.”

Ms. Samot, a Sag Harbor Village resident who works as a healthcare administrator, has served as board president for three years and vice president for four years. She has two daughters who have graduated from the school, and her youngest is in 11th grade.

Throughout her tenure on the board, she said she has focused on long-range planning, goal setting, and data-driven decision making. “We have developed budgets under the tax cap that maintain as well as grow programs while maintaining positions,” she said. “I am committed to including all key stakeholders in the decision making process. While on the board, I have implemented a committee structure that facilitates community input on issues.” The latest committee focuses on communications, she said.

Other key accomplishments that Ms. Samot pointed to were the implementation of the International Baccalaureate program in 11th and 12th grade, which is now being expanded to the middle school, implementation of the prekindergarten program, successful passage of a facilities bond earlier this school year, and the hiring of superintendents, including the latest, Katy Graves.

Moving forward, both Ms. Samot and Ms. Kruel said strategic long-range planning will come into focus. “As we enter a new chapter in the Sag Harbor School District with a new superintendent, a building project, and enhanced programs, I welcome the opportunity to build on my accomplishments and to collaborate with the school and community to lead the district to the next level of success,” Ms. Samot said.

The proposed budget for the 2014-15 school year represents an increase of $1.3 million, or 3.83 percent, over this year’s $35.5 million budget. Sag Harbor’s cap on tax-levy increases next year is actually 1.51 percent; the district is proposing an increase of 1.48 percent.

If the budget passes, taxpayers in the Sag Harbor School District, which straddles the town line, will pay an increase of about $5.80 per month for a house assessed at about $1 million.

The vote takes place in the Pierson High School gym on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m.

Correction: The increase in the tax bill was previously reported as about $5.80 per year, but it is actually an increase of $5.80 per month.

A public hearing on the 2014-15 Springs School budget Monday night took on a divisive tone as a number of district residents took issue with what some charged was  a top-heavy administrative increase and questioned a new $2 million capital reserve fund, which will be presented to voters in separate balloting on Tuesday.  

The $26.6 million 2014-15 school budget represents a 4.9-percent increase over the current budget of $25.4 million. The tax levy would increase by 3.18 percent, which is under the state-imposed 1.46 percent tax cap after exemptions are taken into account.

As previously reported, owners of houses with a town evaluation of $400,000 would see a tax hike of $163. Properties valued at $600,000 would see an increase of $245; those valued at $800,000 would pay $326 more.

David Buda, a Springs civic activist, took issue with  rising tax rates, arguing that the rate had risen 120 percent since he became a resident 13 years ago. Another of Mr. Buda’s primary objections was that this year’s surplus, or adjusted unrestricted fund balance, will exceed the state limit of 4 percent.

“The district has been very clear to our residents about the fact that surplus has been generated. That’s why the district is asking voters to create the capital reserve fund,” John Finello, the district superintendent, said. “It will help pay for someof the necessary facility upgrades in future years without increasing taxes, while reducing the allowable ‘rainy day’ funds to a level that the board believes will assist it to be compliant with lawful limit.”

Mr. Buda also took issue with what he termed a last-minute decision to create a $2 million capital reserve fund. The board voted on May 1 to establish the fund and ask voters to approve it in a separate proposition. The maximum that can be placed in the capital reserve is $2 million in each of the next five years, for a total of $10 million. The fund would allow improvements like classroom additions and renovations, a cafeteria, and numerous structural upgrades.

Phyllis Italiano, another Springs resident, asked whether voters could support the budget but vote against the capital fund. Elizabeth Mendelman, the board president, confirmed that they could. Calling the administration top heavy, Ms. Italiano questioned the need for a full-time superintendent, noting that Mr. Finello now works part-time. “It’s very hard to vote against the budget, but I’m not in favor of the proposition. And I’m warning you because I think people are going to vote you down on this.”

Chris Tucci expressed concern that a costly proposition for a capital fund might strike some as a “money grabbing technique,” and he warned that as a result “people might not come and vote for the budget.” Mr. Tucci also questioned the need for changing the superintendent’s position from part to full-time.

Mr. Finello, a resident of Cold Spring Harbor, now has an annual salary of $55,000, along with a $3,600 monthly stipend for housing in Springs. Should the budget be approved by voters,  $174,167, which includes $56,139 in benefits, will be allocated for the superintendent in the 2014-15 school year. 

David Wilt, another Springs resident, expressed frustration that the board is “sitting there listening, but no one is answering any questions.”

While a public hearing in name, where the public is welcome to comment and make their views known, the board cannot change the adopted budget. During several budget workshops earlier this year, those in attendance expressed little, if any, opposition.

Earlier in the meeting, Ms. Mendelman announced that Springs had withdrawn its appeal to the New York State education commissioner regarding a lower tuition rate for the students the district sends to East Hampton.

An agreement had been reached earlier this year dictating a new rate of $25,789 — a nearly $850 reduction from the previous year’s tuition. Overall, the agreement will save Springs around $228,000 for the coming year, based on projected enrollment.

Richard Burns, East Hampton’s superintendent, and Robert Tymann, its assistant superintendent, attended Monday night’s meeting, where in addition to forthcoming district voting, an accelerated math curriculum, impacting both Springs and East Hampton students, was discussed. At Springs, the change will affect students in grades 6 to 8, allowing them to reach calculus by the 12th grade. In order to qualify, students must have scored either a 3 or 4 on recent Common Core-aligned state math exams. They also must have a minimum average of 90 for the previous quarters. The curriculum will be condensed so that eighth graders will take algebra, leaving geometry, algebra two, pre-calculus, and calculus for high school. At Springs, administrators estimated that a quarter of sixth graders might qualify.

In other news, the board accepted a donation of $5,000 from the Hamptons Marathon. They also approved the purchase of a 66-passenger propane bus at a cost of $107,746, which will be paid for over four years.

On Tuesday, Springs residents will be able to vote at the school on the annual school budget from 1 to 9 p.m. Ms. Mendelman and Timothy Frazier, incumbent board members, are running unopposed for three-year terms. Today is the last day to register, with Monday the deadline for absentee ballots. The next school board meeting is scheduled for June 9.

Get-out-the-vote efforts have started to intensify, with school budget votes only five days away, and in the East Hampton School District, turnout is particularly crucial after the school board voted unanimously to pierce the state-mandated 1.46-percent cap on tax levy increases earlier this spring. Overriding the cap to adopt the proposed $65 million budget requires the support of 60 percent of voters who cast their ballots on Tuesday.

The district is proposing a 1.3-percent increase in spending next year and a 2.43-percent increase in the tax levy. Had it stayed within the tax cap, the school board told voters, the district would have had to lay off teachers and support staff and “cut deeply into our instructional programs.”

If the budget does not pass on Tuesday, the school board can put the same budget up for a second vote or propose a new spending plan. A second no vote would force the district to adopt a budget based on this year’s numbers. 

In addition to the budget, voters will see two familiar names on the ballot — Patricia Hope and Jackie Lowey — both incumbents seeking second, three-year terms.

Ms. Hope, the board’s president, retired from East Hampton High School in 2007 after 33 years in the classroom. She was the first woman hired by the school’s six-man science department. By the time she retired, the department included six women and seven men.

Ms. Hope, 72, considers the school board a full-time (albeit unpaid) job, regularly putting in 40 hours a week, particularly during budget season. But despite the demanding workload, she had no hesitation about running again, believing that her work is not quite finished. She also intends to find ways to help teachers rekindle the passion that brought them to the classroom in the first place, she said.

Looking ahead, with two more years of the state-imposed tax cap, she sees more districts unable to sustain themselves among the tide of rising costs, and voting similarly to pierce the cap.

In the three years she has served, she believes the board has established itself as a trustworthy and conscientious steward of public dollars for the children of East Hampton.

A native of Manhattan, she moved to East Hampton in 1970, a newly divorced single mother drawn to the open spacen which to raise her daughter.

She first attended the City College of New York and later finished her undergraduate degree at Southampton College, then earned a master’s in biology from Stony Brook University.

“To me, school is always the answer,” said Ms. Hope, who worked as a waitress during the day so she could attend college at night. “The freedom to be educated is what I recognize as one of the greatest aspects of this country.”

Her older daughter, Hilary Thayer Hamann, a novelist, lives in Sag Harbor.

As an unwed teacher at East Hampton High School, Ms. Hope’s second pregnancy resulted in much controversy and national press attention. She appeared in People magazine three times in the same year, and on the “Phil Donahue Show.” Her younger daughter, Penelope Jarvis, lives in Springs and recently received a master’s degree in elementary education.

If asked by her fellow board members to serve again as president, she said she would accept the post.

Over the past three years, Ms. Lowey is most proud of working collaboratively with her colleagues to push for improvements throughout the district, including the hiring of a Spanish-speaking liaison and updating the district’s website. Ms. Lowey is also proud that existing resources were repurposed to establish a robotics team, a Science Olympiad program, and coding classes, among other science, technology, electronics, and math offerings — a direction she hopes the district will continue to head in during her next term.

Since she assumed her position, the board has made over $5 million worth of spending cuts. The past year was no exception, with more than $1 million sliced from the original 2014-15 school budget.

Speaking about the decision to pierce the cap, Ms. Lowey said she believes that good education ultimately costs money. “We have pockets of excellence in East Hampton,” she said. “There’s so much good here. Our job is to now expand those pockets of excellence.”

Ms. Lowey, 50, grew up in Queens. After graduating from Swarthmore College, where she studied English literature, she spent 15 years in Washington, D.C., serving during both terms of the Clinton administration and as the deputy director of the National Park Service. She also worked for two members of Congress and on various congressional campaigns, including that of her mother, Representative Nita Lowey, a Democrat who represents Rockland County and parts of Westchester County in New York.

Ms. Lowey has two children, ages 9 and 12, in the district. One is in fourth grade at the John M. Marshall Elementary School and the other is in seventh grade at East Hampton Middle School.

In 2000, two years after meeting her husband, David Kuperschmid, a local businessman, at the Stephen Talkhouse over Labor Day weekend, Ms. Lowey left Washington and relocated to East Hampton. She now runs her own consulting firm, where she works with nonprofit, corporate, and government clients helping with strategic planning, fund-raising, and writing projects.

Prior to running for the school board three years ago, Ms. Lowey was already an active member of the community, regularly volunteering her time at John Marshall and also serving on the board of the Children’s Museum of the East End.

 “Everyone has a responsibility to do something for their community,” she said of her decision to run again. “If you want to make something better, you need to get involved and do something to make it better.”

Voters in East Hampton approved piercing the 2-percent tax cap, while their counterparts in Bridgehampton voted down the same request for the coming school year.

The two districts were the only two on the South Fork, and were among four on Long Island, looking for approval to go over the state mandated cap on tax levy increases.

In a 134-to-113 vote, Bridgehampton School District voters said no to a $12.3 million spending proposal, which translated to a $10.6 million tax levy or an 8.8-percent increase in the tax levy, for the 2014-15 school year. The district needed a 60-percent majority of the voters who turned out to pass the budget. With 247 casting ballots, only 54.25 percent were willing to pierce the cap.

Under a state law that went into effect in 2012, the cap on property tax levy increases is either 2 percent or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. This year's increase is capped at 1.46 percent.

The board will now have to decide whether to go out to the voters with the same budget a second time or make changes before a second vote. If a second vote fails, Bridgehampton will be forced to adopt the budget from the previous school year, with huge cuts expected.

Lois Favre, the district superintendent and principal, said the board and the district worked hard to make the community understand the need to pierce the cap. However, she said, she wasn't surprised the budget was voted down. "It disappointed me. We've been out in front of this since March," she said. "We'll see what the board wants to do now." 

Voters did approve, however, the Bridgehampton Child Care budget, 157-to-89.

The voters in Bridgehampton also elected two new school board members; Jeffrey Mansfield received 187 votes and Kathleen McCleland took in 172. Along with Michael Gomberg, who ended up with 72 of the votes, they ran for two seats vacated by Elizabeth Kotz and Gabriela Braia, incumbents who decided not to seek re-election. The terms are for three years.

East Hampton

Before the polls closed on Tuesday night, the mood in East Hampton was cautiously optimistic, with board members and school administrators on tenterhooks awaiting the final outcome of a budget vote that also required approval by 60 percent of voters. 

Seventy-three percent of them said yes to the $65 million budget, a vote of 492 to 184.

Patricia Hope and Jackie Lowey, the two uncontested incumbents, each sailed to victory, receiving 531 and 535 votes, respectively. 

According to Richard Burns, the superintendent, annual turnout generally ranges between 600 to 800 voters. In the past decade, he can recall only one election where upwards of 1,000 residents turned out. 

The district proposed a 1.3-percent increase in spending for the 2014-15 school year, and a 2.43-percent increase in the tax levy.

Other district results:

Wainscott

On Tuesday night, 10 minutes after the polls closed, Mary McCaffrey, the Wainscott clerk, called to confirm the district's results. 

Thirty-nine Wainscott residents voted in favor of the $3.1 million 2014-15 school budget. No one voted it down. 

David E. Eagan, the current president of the Wainscott School Board, was re-elected with 33 votes. There were two write-ins for Jeff Yusko and four blank ballots. 

For results in Springs and Sag Harbor, click here. 

For results in Montauk, click here.

Super Soccer Stars

    Super Soccer Stars, a soccer program that sets up shop on the South Fork come summer, will kick off with the Children’s Museum of the East End on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon in Sag Harbor’s Mashashimuet Park.

    Kids can kick around a ball and learn and practice skills with the program’s coaches, or decorate and fly their own kites with the help of museum staff. And it’s all free.

Insect Connections

    Kids 3 to 5 can bring their questions about insects to a story time and nature walk on Saturday at the South Fork Natural History Museum.

    Crystal Possehl and her puppet, Lodo the River Otter, will read Cathryn Sill’s “About Insects” and search the field and pond behind the Bridgehampton museum for some live specimens starting at 2 p.m.

    The connection between people and insects, snakes and ladybugs, and dogs and dolphins will be explored in a program on Monday at 10 a.m. at the museum. Tyler Armstrong will explain how animals that seem alike may not be at all, and how those that seem very different are more related than we think.

    Reservations have been requested for both programs.

“Dive Into Art”

    Kids can “dive into art” at the East Hampton Library, tap into flower power at the Amagansett Library, and get into chocolate at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton this week.

    Joyce Raimondo will lead children 4 and older as they create collages of underwater scenes in East Hampton on Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m.

    A flower-themed story and craft time is on the agenda in Amagansett at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

    On Tuesday at 7 at the Hampton Library, 8 to 12-year-olds are invited to enjoy an evening of chocolate fondue. What’s not to like, unless you’re a parent.

    Also at the Hampton Library, kids in seventh grade and up can drop in to make baskets from raffia and drinking cups from Saturday through May 31.

Teen Scribes to Read

    Writers who have been honing their skills in Jeanette Sarkisian Wagner’s teen writing workshops at the John Jermain Memorial Library will read from their work at the library on Sunday. The young writers will share poetry, stories, and creative nonfiction from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the library’s temporary location on West Water Street in Sag Harbor.

Collage, Krasner-Style

    Kids 6 to 10 will learn about the collage work of the artist Lee Krasner at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton on Saturday, then create work in her style. The workshop, offered in partnership the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, will start at 10 a.m. and costs $20, or $15 for members.

    Krasner made collages out of pieces of her own artwork. Those who attend on Saturday can take along some of their own drawings and paintings for material or use things provided by the museum.

    Also that day, at 10:30 a.m., younger children ages 2 to 6 will whip up fresh gyros in a family cooking class. The cost is $22, $12 for members. Reservations have been suggested for both programs.

A newly renovated greenhouse at the Montauk School was dedicated to Carol Morrison on May 21. A large group of teachers, members of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, and representatives of the Edible School Gardens group crammed into the well-lighted, aluminum-framed structure, which for the ceremony was filled with sprouting plants, vegetables, herbs, and goldfish for its pond.

A founding member of the Concerned Citizens and the one who lobbied for a donation from the environmental group to the school, Ms. Morrison died at 90 in October 2010. A well-known environmental watchdog and a constant and outspoken presence at East Hampton Town Board meetings, Ms. Morrison was lauded as one who helped preserve Hither Woods and Shadmoor State Park.

At the dedication, Ms. Morrison’s niece, Liddie (Morrison) Baker, who lives in Connecticut, said, “Carol would have been so thrilled at what you guys have done.”

John Tagliavia, a former teacher, initiated the idea for a school greenhouse in 1976. The structure that was finally built in 1979 was a wood-framed building on the south side of the school that, to the disappointment of many, did not supply enough light for growing.

Before she retired in 2010, Margaret Hayes managed the greenhouse and led the nature club. After that, Todd Brunn, who teaches grades one through six, took over its management, working every day with students growing plants and maintaining the fishpond.

Over the years, students held several fund-raisers, including a spaghetti dinner and a fashion show, in support of the building. They also planted an outdoor garden and installed an automatic watering system.

It wasn’t until Ms. Morrison’s successful lobbying efforts that the school received $10,000 from C.C.O.M. for the renovation of the building, with a wide span of windows that got things growing again. Joe Malave, a science teacher, then started his own garden club to teach students about gardening and the interconnectedness of nature, he said.

Susan Vitale of the Montauk Community Garden on the grounds of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church visits weekly with kindergartners and first graders to teach them about nature and help them plant. Jessica James and Allison Harrington of C.C.O.M. voluntarily maintain the building’s interior by organizing tools, cleaning up, and even doing a bit of weeding when necessary.

Donna DiPaolo, who teaches special education, began the dedication ceremony and spoke a bit about the Edible School Gardens group, of which she has been a member for the last four years. The group meets monthly, she explained later in an email, at various schools that have gardens or greenhouses. Members also work with Slow Food East End, which is ready to distribute a cookbook with student recipes that was made possible with funding from Kickstarter, an online site that raises money for a variety of projects.

Additionally, students on the South Fork benefit from a yearly fund-raiser hosted by the Josh Levine Memorial Foundation, which sends master gardeners to schools to speak with students for a few hours each month.

The greenhouse is not open to the public unless requested, but with all those windows you can get a good peek inside and see what the students are up to.