After two years of legal back and forth, more than two-dozen employees at Springs School have a collective bargaining agreement with the district. It was approved unanimously on Monday at a meeting of the Springs Board Education. Each member of the Civil Service Employees Association had similarly voted in favor of passage.

    The C.S.E.A. represents 26 school employees — each of the school’s teaching assistants, teacher’s aides, and nurses. Custodians and bus drivers are part of a separate bargaining unit, whose agreement is still being ashed out.

     “The C.S.E.A. leadership and the administration have worked very hard at the bargaining table to produce an agreement that is fair and just,” Kathee Burke Gonzalez, school board president, said on Monday. “It balances the contributions of our dedicated staff with the economic pressures facing our taxpayers.”

    The five-year agreement is retroactive and will last until June 30, 2015. It calls for a longer workday, an increase in each employee’s health insurance contribution, and a modest salary increase — 1.5 percent for each of the first four years of the agreement followed by an increase of 1.75 percent for the fifth and final year.

    In other matters at Monday’s meeting, Eric M. Casale, the Springs principal, discussed on the adoption of Common Core State Standards, a national set of learning benchmarks, which have been adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia. With Springs students scheduled to take state exams beginning next week, Mr. Casale said it was “an anxiety-filled time.” By the 2014-15 academic year, the Common Core stipulates that all schools must administer online assessments — rather than paper-based versions — to track yearly student progress.

    The district recently received a $25,000 grant through State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle in this regard. It recently spent $23,280 from the grant to purchase 60 Chromebooks, a personal computer manufactured by Google, and $1,720 to fund Rachel’s Challenge, a character-building program that began earlier in the year. In addition, a $2,500 grant from the Hamptons Marathon went toward the purchase of other mobile learning devices.

    Also at the meeting, Mr. Casale announced that he had been selected to attend a summer training program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education on closing achievement gaps, and officials said plans were under way to build a new vestibule and access ramp at the front entrance of the building. Construction will take place over the summer so that student and faculty traffic will not be affected come September.

    The school has hired Jessica L. Datz to work as a special education teacher for a three-year probationary period beginning on April 15. She was one of 339 teachers who applied to fill the vacancy.

    The fourth and final district budget work session will be held in the school’s common room on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

    The East Hampton School Board is looking to slice nearly $1 million from the 2013-14 district budget it first reviewed this year, but despite the cuts, the proposed $64.2 million budget as it stands would represent a 2.21-percent increase over this year’s and would include a proposed 5.53-percent tax-rate increase.

    The 2012-13 budget, by comparison, brought a tax-rate increase of 3.18 percent.

    “The first year was fat and the second year it’s muscle and next year it’s going to be bone,” Christina DeSanti, a board member, said at Tuesday night’s final budget workshop.

    On Tuesday, Richard J. Burns, the district’s superintendent, walked the board and three audience members through the proposed cuts, saying that the reductions would result in “instructional improvements and savings.”

    But some board members expressed concern over the large number of reductions planned, particularly given the size and scope of last year’s cuts — $2.8 million was culled from the draft budget.

    When it comes to cuts, none of the district’s three schools will escape unscathed.

    Going forward, East Hampton High School plans to eliminate both Mandarin Chinese and American Sign Language, though it will allow currently enrolled students to finish out their course of study by taking classes via Skype. The high school will also abandon its driver’s education program, choosing to outsource the program to a company that will run it before and after school at the students’, rather than the district’s, expense.

    The high school, where more than $65,000 in cuts are proposed, will also see a reduction in the number of sections offered for both art and home and career classes. While current art classes enroll between 8 and 12 students, for instance, future sections will see around 20 students per class.

    At East Hampton Middle School, where nearly $40,000 in cuts are proposed, similar reductions will be made to the number of sections available in science, physical education, and Spanish.

    The $60,000 in cuts proposed at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, will be seen in the school’s conference and beach field trip budgets, among several other items. 

    District-wide, Mr. Burns said there would also be a reduction in overtime due to a realignment of duties, a reduction in the number of extracurricular activities whose participants were few in number, and in funding for a security audit at each of the three campuses.

    Midway through the meeting, some confusion resulted, as building heads were apparently asked by Mr. Burns to present proposed cuts that equaled between 20 to 25 percent of their budgets.

    Alison Anderson, a board member, took issue with what she described as a “faulty leak of information” after she had received calls saying that all assistant coaches were to be excised from the more than $1 million athletic budget at a savings of more than $100,000.

    Robert Tymann, the district’s assistant superintendent, said there had been a misunderstanding and that personnel was never to be included in the cuts. Rather than face more than $200,000 worth of cuts, the athletic budget would see a proposed reduction of about $50,000, mostly having to do with equipment and supplies. All assistant coaches will remain in their positions.

    Again on Tuesday night, while board members perused line-item budgets from each of the three schools, the documents were only provided to the press after they were requested repeatedly.

     “We are not presenting our budget with the most knowledge to our reporters. We have more information than they do,” said Ms. Anderson. “Isabel, no offense to you, but we have to improve the way we present our budget,” she said, referring to Isabel Madison, the assistant superintendent for business.

     “There’s this feeling that we are hiding information,” said Mr. Burns, looking bewildered. “But we are being extremely transparent.”

    Once it came time to examine the proposed 27-page budget, Ms. Madison stood to address the board.

     “This is the best possible budget we can get given the circumstances that we have, considering we have to come in under the 2-percent cap,” said Ms. Madison. The budget, as it stands, is up 2.21 percent over this year’s. The tax levy increase next year is proposed at 5.01 percent, but falls under the state-mandated 2-percent cap because many items causing the increases are exempt from that cap. Should the district propose a tax levy increase greater than 2 percent, after the exemptions are factored in, 60 percent of East Hampton voters would have to approve the budget.

    Further complicating matters, Mr. Burns later said that the combination of salaries and employee benefits amounts to 75 percent of the nearly $64.2 million budget.

    At last week’s meeting, board members weighed whether to choose a Teachers’ Retirement System pension-smoothing plan of either 14 or 16.25 percent. While the 14-percent plan would provide the district with a lower rate and a savings of around $500,000 for the coming year, the district would essentially be borrowing money from itself that it would have to repay — including interest — in the coming years.

    On Tuesday night, board members agreed to the 16.25 percent allowance.

    Ms. Madison repeatedly cautioned that the numbers are still an estimate, particularly the tax rate increaase, as property taxes and assessments are still unknown and won’t be provided until later in the year. 

     “We’re between a rock and a hard place,” Patricia Hope, a board member, concluded at last week’s meeting. “Eventually, we run into the law of diminishing returns. Unless, of course, money falls from the sky, which even in East Hampton is unlikely to happen.”

    At Tuesday’s school board meeting, following a presentation by Mr. Burns detailing its highlights, the budget will finally be adopted. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the district office. A budget hearing will be held on May 7, and the budget vote and school board elections will be on May 21.

Egg Drop Challenge

    The Children’s Museum of the East End will hold an egg drop on Saturday at 11 a.m. and is challenging kids to design a battle-proof vessel that will keep a raw chicken egg intact when dropped from the plank of CMEE’s pirate ship.

    The containers cannot include liquids, glass, or helium or other gases lighter than air. They must weigh one pound or less and be no more than one foot square. Parachutes can be used, but they must deploy in the air. The containers cannot be built around the eggs, as participants will have to insert their eggs just before the drop. Contestants can build their containers at home or make them during a workshop at the museum at 10 that morning, before the big event. The cost is $4, $2 for museum members. Eggs will be provided.

    To get kids geared up for Saturday’s fun, the Bridgehampton museum’s Pizza and Pajama Night tomorrow will include a reading of Mini Grey’s “Egg Drop.” The fun starts at 6 and costs $10. Members get in free.

The Birds and the Bats

    Birds, bats, and spring peepers are on the agenda at the South Fork Natural History Museum this weekend. On Saturday at 10 a.m., families with children 8 and older can listen for the sounds of spring with Crystal Possehl, a nature educator, who will offer a slide show with recordings of spring peepers, wood frogs, red-winged blackbirds, Northern cardinals, Eastern bluebirds, and more. A walk in the field behind the museum will follow. Those who have binoculars should take them.

    Kids 8 and older will build bat houses on Sunday at 1 p.m. with Molly Adams. Because of increased development of wooded areas, bats, which can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour, are having a harder time finding trees in which to roost and raise their young. Ms. Adams will teach kids about bats’ important role in the local ecosystem while they assemble the houses. There is a $15 materials fee.

    As space in both workshops is limited, advance registration is required. The museum is in Bridgehampton on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

    Tickets are on sale now for Sunset Over the Harbor, a May 3 fund-raiser for the Greater East Hampton Education Foundation.

    The party will be held at East Hampton Point on Three Mile Harbor from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. The $35 ticket price includes a full dinner buffet, passed hors d’oeuvres, dancing with D.J. Mike, auction items to bid on, and a raffle.

    The Greater East Hampton Education Foundation helps to fund Challenge Day, offers mini-grants to teachers, and gives book and college scholarships to students in the district. The foundation can be reached at 605-5125 for tickets in advance.

    As East End school districts, like others throughout the state, concentrate on preparing budgets for the next academic year, which are to be presented to voters in May, momentum has lapsed on the exploration of school consolidation. Initial discussions among school leaders,  begun a year ago, held great promise and the potential for compromise. But, as Jack Perna, superintendent of the Montauk School District, said this week, “Here we go again.” 

    The idea behind school consolidation is that small districts lack economies of scale and that by combining resources schools would operate with more efficiency and cost savings, as well as added resources. But while some school districts would see a lower tax rate, others would see a significant increase. As a result, the opinion among school officials remains in a virtual deadlock.

    Officials from the Springs, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Montauk, Tuckahoe, and Southampton districts, as well as the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, joined forces a year ago to apply for a $220,000 grant through the state’s Local Government Efficiency Program to study potential reorganization. It was a significant step in a direction that proponents of consolidation describe as badly needed, especially during a time when budgets are shrinking and districts face a 2-percent cap on increases in tax levies.

    The grant would have explored a wide array of options — from sharing services to the wholesale consolidation of some of the districts in the hope of improving the quality of instruction while reducing costs and saving taxpayer dollars.

    But in October, word came from Albany that the East End grant had been denied, with state officials saying the application was too broad and lacked specificity. Three months later, district leaders sat down with state officials and were urged to reapply in time for this year’s March 13 deadline.

    While representatives of most of the districts that were among the original grant applicants, and the Bridgehampton district as well, attended the meeting, East Hampton and Montauk declined to participate. Mid-March came and went, with districts citing the impossibly quick turnaround during a time of year that coincides with budget preparation.

    “There was suddenly two weeks to take it apart and resubmit it. It was too short a time frame,” said Michael Hartner, the former superintendent of Springs, who participated in the planning meeting. Now retired, he was the lead author on last year’s application. “No one was stepping forward to say, ‘I’ll spend the next two weeks doing nothing else to get it done.’ ”

    Some officials are now questioning what a formal study would achieve. In recent weeks, as Bridgehampton is weighing whether to participate, East Hampton and Montauk have opted out.

    At last week’s East Hampton School Board meeting, George Aman, board president, said that while the board was willing to consider shared services, it was not planning to reinvest in what he termed a “costly study.” Even though the state would fund the bulk of the more than $200,000 study, each district would be required to contribute nearly $3,000.

    “We’re doing everyone a disservice if we put aside the idea of consolidation,” Arthur Goldman, a teacher at East Hampton High School and a Springs resident, said at last week’s meeting. “The board has to take a leadership role here.” Board members appeared unmoved. The board will consider shared services, but participating in a study seems unlikely.

    “If you were starting from scratch, we would all be one district. That would make sense,” Mr. Aman said. “The difficulty is that once they are established, in small school districts particularly, people are very happy with the status quo. And human nature being what it is, folks are not going to give up their local control to absorb someone else’s higher tax rate.”

    Multiple calls to the East Hampton district’s superintendent, Richard J. Burns, were not returned.

    “This state isn’t going to be able to support 700 school districts going forward,” said Mary Anne Miller, a Sag Harbor School Board member and former board president. She expressed disappointment that the March deadline to reapply had come and gone. “The end is coming soon. We should be talking about this much more aggressively. Our job as board members is to push this kind of uncomfortable discussion on the community.”

    Dowling College conducted a formal study of consolidation in 1998, looking at East Hampton, Montauk, Springs, and Amagansett. The conclusion was that only taxpayers in Springs stood to benefit, while taxpayers in Amagansett were likely to see their tax rates rise by as much as 50 percent. More than 15 years later, such a conclusion still holds.

    “We have been involved with studies over the years and the topic of consolidation has been discussed many times over many years,” said Eleanor Tritt, the superintendent of Amagansett School District. The district, which operates one school, enrolls 110 students in grades pre-K to 6 and sends students to East Hampton schools from the seventh grade through high school.

    “For Amagansett, the results consistently show that consolidation would cause the tax rate in Amagansett to rise significantly,” Ms. Tritt said. Even though she thinks consolidation remains unpalatable, she said she remained a staunch advocate for sharing services whenever possible.

    Stuart Rachlin, the superintendent of the Wainscott School, similarly expressed disinterest in consolidation. “When you have a small district such as Wainscott and the tax rate is so low, if you consolidate, the tax rate will go up,” Dr. Rachlin said. The Wainscott School enrolls 15 students in kindergarten through third grade.

    Carl Bonuso, the superintendent of the Sag Harbor district, remained cautiously optimistic, however. He said an opportunity for a wide coalition of districts to again reapply for grant money was a possibility.

    Regardless of whether a study was done, however, he said shared services were soon to become an increasing reality for all local districts — grant or no grant.

     “As we develop our budgets, the only way we can survive is to concentrate on the expenditure side and be more creative at looking at the revenue side of the equation. Sharing services is one way of dealing with the revenue side,” Dr. Bonuso said.

    He described the East End districts as having a family-like quality, like different households working to help each other. “It just makes sense to work together,” he said.

    “Consolidation is the word everyone is hung up on,” said Kathee Burke Gonzalez, the Springs School Board president, offering that the word reorganization might be more acceptable. Ms. Burke Gonzalez, who will step down from her position this spring, is hopeful that come summer everyone will come back to the conversation with fresh eyes and a new perspective.

    “New boards and superintendents will have a bit more free time than they do in February and March to sit down and figure out exactly what it is they want to study,” she said. “I’m hopeful that once everyone’s budget passes, they can all come up for air and pursue the conversation once again.”

Calling Teen Filmmakers

    The East Hampton Library will begin a monthlong teen film contest with a kickoff meeting on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. The contest asks high school students working in teams or on their own to write a script and shoot a short film, music video, animated film, or experimental video, and then submit their finished work by April 30. Films will be screened and awards will be given out on May 1. Advance registration has been requested.

Comic Book Workshop

    Kids 8 and older who love manga and anime can learn to draw in that style during a manga comic book workshop starting April 6 at the Golden Eagle art store in East Hampton. The class will meet for four Saturdays from noon to 1:30 p.m. Participants have been asked to take their own sketchbooks. The cost for all four classes is $120. Advance registration is required.

Mad Scientists

    Young would-be scientists who don’t get the chance to hone their skills at home will be set free during a chemistry workshop on Saturday at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. Tyler Armstrong, a nature educator, will oversee 8 to 10-year-olds as they mix together some safe household chemicals to learn about chemical reactions. Mess-proof clothes are a must. The workshop begins at 11 a.m.; participants must register in advance as space is limited.

    Three parents of Montauk prekindergartners presented the Montauk School Board Tuesday with a petition asking the board to consider piercing the state-imposed 2-percent cap on tax levy increases so that the school can add a third kindergarten class next year and reduce class sizes in all grades.

    The petition, which was signed by 185 people, they said, asked that classes have no more than 18 students in kindergarten through third grade and 20 students in other grades.

    Tom Flight, accompanied by Amy Duryea-Kelly and Paul Tough, an author of “The School of Hard Knocks: How Children Succeed,” delivered the signatures to the board. Diane Hausman, the school board president, said that although the board would accept it, there would be no comment as the meeting was a budget workshop and not a regular board meeting, where community input is on the agenda.

    In a follow-up phone call, however, Ms. Hausman said the board took some offense to the petition, which stated: “Without direct action, the financial planning going into the 2013-14 Montauk School threatens the education of the town’s children at all grade levels.”

    “I take great exception to the word ‘threaten,’ ” Ms. Hausman said yesterday. “This board would never threaten the education of students in the Montauk School.”

    The school board has frequently mentioned that it must take into consideration the senior citizen population by keeping the financial figures within their range. At Tuesday’s meeting, Ms. Duryea-Kelly said 50 percent of the signatures she had collected in front of the Montauk Post Office one day last week were from senior citizens.

    “I was surprised. I thought I’d receive a lot more resistance, but I didn’t,” she told the board, adding afterward that the signers also included young parents.

    The board began discussing increasing class sizes in January. Parents came out in force to urge them not to, saying that larger classes have been proven to reduce the quality of a child’s education. Originally, the board was going vote to change the class size policy from 18 per class with a maximum of 24 to a maximum of 28 students.

    But when they actually voted and approved the resolution, it gave them the flexibility to change class size depending on each individual class and omitted actual numbers. At the time, one board member said that including the numbers seemed to be pitting parents against school officials.

    Prekindergarten classes, which are exempt from the changes, can have no more than 21 students. This year’s pre-K enrollment was so large that students were divided into four classes, with two morning and two afternoon sessions.

    Jack Perna, the school superintendent, and several teachers have gone on record saying they, too, prefer smaller class sizes. “I don’t know what you’re all hearing out there, but I have never veered from a smaller class size,” he said on Tuesday. He explained, however, that adding another class would cost the district at least $150,000.

    Ms. Duryea-Kelly said yesterday that the parents feel as if they’re not being heard and are powerless in the situation. “We feel as if they’re saying, ‘Yes, we hear you, but there’s nothing we can do for you,’ ” she said on the phone.

    The petition also states that the group realizes that piercing the tax cap would mean a “small” increase in taxes. “But this is a critical investment in the future of Montauk,” it reads.

    Mr. Flight offered a tax rate schedule that he said was based on prior tax estimates. With it were applications for the School Tax Relief (STAR) program, which reduces taxes for owner-occupied, primary residences for senior citizens and people whose combined income does not exceed $500,000.

    If the school were to try to pierce the 2-percent cap, the budget would have to be approved by at least 60 percent of voters. If it didn’t pass, it could be put up for a second vote, but if it were voted down again, the school would lose the ability to increase the budget at all for next year. Parents have said they believe they could get enough people to the polls to pass the budget the first time around.

    Moving on, the board combed through the budget for the third time since it was released earlier this month. There have been several changes over the course of the weekly meetings and workshops. One item that was questioned by the board was a $28,000 increase for security measures at the school.

    Mr. Perna pointed to the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut and said he wanted more cameras installed, and possibly a vestibule so that visitors could not enter the school building until they were identified. The price quote was for $30,000, up from $1,700 in last year’s budget. He said that SCAN security had submitted the estimate, but he has since received two other bids that will also be considered.

    A teacher at Tuesday’s meeting asked the board to consider increasing the spending on the curriculum. Sue Nicoletti, who teaches fifth graders, said that teachers are using some textbooks from 12 years ago, mostly in social studies and science. Moreover, teachers need ongoing training. “I just want to make sure you’re aware of it,” she told the board.

    The 2013-14 budget as it now stands carries a $184,000 increase over this year’s budget, bringing it to $18.7 million. The board has until April 23 to adopt its proposed budget. The public budget vote and school board elections will be on May 15.

    At a school board meeting on March 12, Therese Watson announced that she will step down from the seat she has held for 29 years. As of yesterday, no one had filed the petition to run for the vacant seat. Petitions require 25 signatures and must be submitted to the district clerk by April 22. If no one comes forward to run, school officials will have to appoint someone to the board, Mr. Perna said.

Busy Bunny

    Easter is not until the end of the month, but the Easter Bunny will be busy already this weekend. Egg hunts and egg decorating events begin on Saturday in anticipation of the holiday. The first is at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton at 10 a.m. for children 8 and under. It starts with a story time, and then convenes to the library’s lawn, where a floppy-eared friend will be on hand. In case of rain, the hunt will be postponed to March 30.

    Kids in seventh grade and above can drop in at the library during regular hours on Saturday through March 30 to make yarn eggs.

A Very Important Date

    A Mad Hatter Tea Party at the Children’s Museum of the East End on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. will include an outdoor egg scavenger hunt, hat decorating, and spring arts and crafts. There will be complimentary goodies, lemonade, and tea. The party is free for members, and $18 for others.

    On Sunday at 11 a.m., Sima at Sea, a storyteller, will read “Spring Is Singing.” There is no charge for the program, which is sponsored by Cultural Care Au Pair. Drop-in spring break workshops for kids 3 to 5 will be held every weekday next week. Kids will do creative play, cooking, art, and science and nature programs from 9 a.m. to noon. The cost is $80 per day, per child, or $75 for members. Advance registration is required. The museum is on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton.

Egg Scramble

    A mad scramble for eggs is guaranteed on Saturday at 11 a.m. on the nose as the Ladies Village Improvement Society hosts an egg hunt on the grounds of its Main Street, East Hampton, headquarters. The affair is for children 2 to 9, with a separate area specifically for the younger egg finders.

Eggs-Travaganza

    The Montauk Library has promised an “eggs-travaganza” for families, involving games and crafts, on Saturday afternoon from 3 to 4:30. Those who attend have been advised to take a smock or wear clothing they can part with, as things could get messy.

    On Tuesday, Chip Bryant, the Silent Clown, will perform at the library from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m., offering a blend of mime, clowning, juggling, magic, puppetry, and music. Registration has been requested for both programs but is not required.

Coloring Festa

    The Easter Bunny will be on hand Sunday at Cittanuova in East Hampton during the restaurant’s annual Easter Egg Coloring Festa from 9 to 11:30 a.m. There will be eggs galore and coloring materials for kids 3 to 8, and a raffle for some sweet treats. A suggested donation of $3 will benefit the Flying Point Foundation for Autism.

Crafts and Critters

    At the East Hampton Library, workshops throughout the week will help keep the schedule full for kids 4 and older. Who needs a paintbrush? Not the children who take part in Saturday’s workshop, when participants will paint with anything but a brush from 2 to 3 p.m.

    On Monday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., kids can create crazy critters with real grass hair that will grow at home. Sock bunnies and spring cupcake decorating are on the agenda for Friday, March 29, with bunny-making from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and cupcakes from 1:30 to 2:30. For all workshops, kids under 7 must be accompanied by an adult. Bunnies will also be the focus of a story and craft time for kids 4 to 6 on Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. The library has requested advance sign-up for all programs.

So Much to Do

    Some school spring breaks have been done away with, but parents whose children are still on vacation next week can find workshops to keep the kids entertained and engaged at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill and the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, each offered Monday through Friday, March 29.

    The Parrish programs have a different focus each day — spring landscapes, Pop Art, still-life collage, spring printmaking, and garden-inspired sculpture — with sessions for 4 to 6-year-olds from 10 a.m. to noon, and sessions for kids 7 and older from 1 to 3 p.m. The cost is $40 per session or $30 for members. Advance registration required.

    Bay Street will have a kids theater camp for 8 to 12-year-olds from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Karen Hochstedler and Bethany Dellapolla will offer instruction in acting, singing, dance, and more. The cost is $385 per child. Advance registration is required through the theater.

Bluebird Watch

    Land development has left fewer tree cavities for Eastern bluebirds to nest in, but the birds take well to nest boxes like the ones in the field behind the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. On Saturday, before taking 5 to 9-year-olds on a nature walk to observe the bluebirds, Crystal Possehl, a nature educator, will read them a book about a how a bluebird couple build their nest, feed their young, and get ready for winter. Then kids will make their own bluebird nests. The program starts at 10 a.m. Reservations are required, as space is limited.

Congressional Art Competition

    High school art students who plan to submit their work to the annual Congressional Art Competition have until Friday, March 29, to do so. The student submissions, which are coordinated by art teachers, will be included in an exhibit in the Lyceum Gallery at Suffolk Community College’s Montaukett Learning Center in Riverhead on April 5 and 6. The East End Arts Council will curate the exhibit, and a judge will select first, second, and third-place and honorable mention winners. Winners will be announced at a reception on April 6 from 2 to 4 p.m.

    Last year, Nicole Frank of East Hampton High School won for her painting “Abundance.” The winning work this year will be displayed in a yearlong exhibit in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., with other winning pieces from around the country.

    For students who live in East Hampton and who will be 5 on or before Dec. 1, 2013, kindergarten registration begins this week.

    Parents of children in the prekindergarten program at the East Hampton Day Care Learning Center will have the chance to register their children for East Hampton’s kindergarten program tomorrow, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

    Kindergarten registration will also take place on Wednesday outside John Marshall’s main office from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and again next Thursday from 1 to 6 p.m.

    Parents or guardians must bring proof of their child’s age, in the form of a birth certificate or passport, and proof of residency in the district (a deed, lease, or tax bill), as well as a completed immunization record.

Super Happy Mega Blast

    “The Super Happy Fun Time Mega Blast Emerging Youth Artist Contest and Experience.” The title of this show, to be held on Saturday and Sunday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs, tells you a lot about what to expect. Organized by Hampton Photo Arts and Tonic Artspace and curated by Barbara Impereale of the Tuckahoe School, it will include work in a variety of mediums by artists ages 5 to 19. A reception will be held on Saturday from 5:30 to 10 p.m., and gallery hours will continue Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The registration deadline was Saturday, but there may be a few spots still available. Hampton Photo Arts in Bridgehampton can provide details for those looking to have their work included.

Keep the Goat Afloat

    Fans, or shall we say devotees, of the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre will want to mark their calendars for Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m., when the nonprofit children’s theater holds its annual Bambini Ball fund-raiser upstairs from its stage on East Union Street in Sag Harbor. Partygoers have been advised to wear their most fun and festive costumes for an evening that includes a light dinner, crafts, games, dancing, treats, a puppet show, and a special performance. Tickets cost $45, or $35 for members, and $10 or $8 for children. They can be purchased in advance online at goatonaboat.org. Earlier on Saturday, the puppet theater’s founder, Liz Joyce, will present “Little Red Riding Hood,” at 11 a.m. Tickets cost $10, $9 for members and grandparents, and $5 for children under 3. There will be no 3 p.m. show.

St. Patrick’s Treasure Hunt

    Montauk’s St. Patrick’s Day events this weekend include one especially for kids on Saturday. A Pot o’ Gold Treasure Hunt for 6 to 11-year-olds will start at 1 p.m. and have kids searching individually or in teams for treasures throughout the hamlet. Captain Kid Toys will award prizes for all who find treasures, including one for the team that finishes the hunt first. Registration can be done in advance at the Montauk Chamber of Commerce offices on Main Street or by e-mailing [email protected].

E=MC2

    An educator from the Long Island Science Center will be on hand at the Amagansett Library on Saturday to lead hands-on activities exploring the physics of toys. Using old-fashioned and more familiar toys, kids in kindergarten through sixth grade will learn about gravity, inertia, and kinetic and potential energy, then make a toy of their own. The program begins at 3:30 p.m. Space is limited and advance registration is required.

Why Is the Sky Blue?

    Children curious about the ways of the universe will find answers to some of their questions during a program about light and how it works on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. The program, for children 8 to 10 years old, will include scientific experiments that explain some basic concepts of light, how it bounces off or is absorbed by different surfaces, and what part of the spectrum the human eye can see. Enrollment is limited and advance registration is required.