Springs School will begin its annual prekindergarten registration in the school’s main office on Monday morning, starting at 9 a.m. All children who reside in the district and who will be 4 years of age on or before Dec. 1, 2014, are eligible.

A copy of the child’s birth certificate, immunization records, and proof of residence are required. The registration packets, along with required documentation, are due back no later than March 17, when each child will be entered into a lottery for placement into one of two available time slots: 8:45 to 11:15 a.m. and 12:15 to 2:45 p.m.

A waiting list will be created for children not placed into their preferred session. Additional questions can be directed to Suzanne Janis at 324-0144.

Student Art Extravaganza

    Artwork by thousands of kindergarten through eighth-grade students from across the South Fork and Shelter Island will be on display at Guild Hall starting on Saturday in the first part of the annual Student Art Festival.

    “This exhibition celebrates the artistic pursuits of young people by exhibiting their work in a museum environment and salutes their teachers who cultivate and inspire the creative process,” Ruth Appelhof, Guild Hall’s executive director, said in a release. Work by younger students will be on view through Feb. 24. There will be a reception with student performances in the John Drew Theater on Jan. 26.

    The second part of the festival, featuring work by high school students, runs from March 9 through April 14. Admission to the museum will be free during the festival. The museum is open Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5.

    While the first part of the exhibition is on view, Guild Hall will host free open studio and craft projects for kids 4 to 10 all day on Saturdays and Sundays, except Jan. 27, with materials provided.

Monsters, Penguins, Books

    Kids in kindergarten through sixth grade can sharpen their library skills this afternoon as they team up to search out a “monster” in the Amagansett Library. They will use the card catalog, the Dewey Decimal System, and their own sleuthing powers starting at 2 p.m., and everyone will go home with a monster detective badge.

    On Saturday at 2 p.m., kids in third through sixth grade have been invited to a book conference at the library, where they can talk about their favorite books, series, and authors and pick up suggestions from fellow young readers. There will be prizes for participants and free advance copies of books not yet in print. Erica Farber, the author of the soon-to-be-published Fish Finelli books, will be on hand and snacks will be provided.

    That day at 3:30 p.m., families can drop by the library to hear a story about penguins and then make their own penguin pop-up cards. Reservations have been requested for all library programs.

Guest of a Goat

    Gustafer Yellowgold will stop in at the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor on Saturday to entertain kids with a multimedia performance of live music, animated illustrations, and storytelling in a style The New York Times described as a cross between “The Yellow Submarine” and Dr. Seuss. Shows will be at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets cost $10, $9 for members and grandparents, and $5 for children under 3.

Move and Groove

    The Ellen Johansen Music Studio in East Hampton is offering two music and movement classes for babies and toddlers and their caregivers starting next Thursday. Both classes help develop listening, focused attention, imagination, creativity, and self-expression.

    The 15-week classes are part of the Musikgarten program and are meant for little ones up to age 3. Family Music for babies through 15 months will run from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Tuition costs $250 and includes a CD and parent guidebook to use at home and a stick, rattle, and scarf for the classroom.

    Family Music for toddlers 15 months to 3 years old follows from 10:30 to 11:05 a.m. Tuition is $265, which includes a CD, parent guide, and finger bells. Both classes will meet every Thursday through Memorial Day.

    Ms. Johansen, an early-childhood music and movement specialist, has taught Musikgarten for 20 years. Her studio is at 8 Stratton Square in the village. Spaces can be reserved by calling 324-9648 or online at ellenjohansenmusicstudio.com.

    The search for the next superintendent of the Springs School has begun. But finding a replacement for Dominic Mucci, who has been the district’s interim, three-day-a-week superintendent this year, may not be necessary should he resubmit his application. That outcome seems all but certain.

    At the Springs School Board meeting on Monday night,  Kathee Burke Gonzalez, the board president, spoke in glowing terms of Mr. Mucci’s tenure. Mr. Mucci, 60,  was brought in back in July, ostensibly as a cost-savings measure. As an active retiree in the New York State Teachers Retirement System, he is working under a one-year waiver granted by the Education Department. His term is to expire on June 30.

    “We’re hoping that Dom is going to apply for the position again,” Ms. Gonzalez said. She explained that Springs can apply for a second, and final, waiver for Mr. Mucci to stay on if the board can prove that his hire is in the “best educational interest of the district.”

    “We’re very happy with the way the model has worked out,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “There’s a lot we’ve accomplished in the last six months: a new Web site, we ratified the teachers’ contract, initiated a parent Google group, and next up, the 2013-14 budget.” A budget workshop is scheduled for Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m.

    Prior to retiring, Mr. Mucci was the full-time superintendent in Springs from 1999 to 2002. Among other positions, he later oversaw the North Bellmore School District. In 2008, according to state records compiled by the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, that district paid him a salary of nearly $225,000.

    Nevertheless, although many remain hopeful that Mr. Mucci will carry out another term, the district’s attorney, Neil Block of Ingerman Smith, will coordinate a search to replace him. Applications are due in late February, with the first round of interviews scheduled for March. If necessary, a “meet the candidates” forum for parents, community, and staff will be held in April. 

    Also at the meeting, it was confirmed at the meeting that Eric Casale and Katherine Byrnes would stay on in their roles as principal and assistant principal, respectively. Both are full-time positions. Mr. Casale, reached by telephone, said he was hopeful that Mr. Mucci  would reapply. “It’s been a great learning experience working under him.”

    As for the man himself, Mr. Mucci expressed delight at the possibility of continuing his work. “I would certainly love to come back,” he said, following a 14-hour workday. “There’s really no place I’d rather be.”

    Charles R. Soriano’s three-month absence from his post as principal of the East Hampton Middle School reached a crescendo in the last week, with anticipation  that he would return to work on Tuesday, following the district’s observance of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday on Monday, and, at the same time, with kind words for Thomas Lamorgese, the interim principal.

    Since Dr. Soriano began an extended medical leave early last fall, purportedly for Lyme disease, Dr. Lamorgese, who is well known in the district, has filled the position. Before retiring in 2011 at the age of 58, he had overseen the middle school and before that was principal of the John M. Marshall Elementary School.

    Since an East Hampton School Board meeting on Jan. 8, when the board unanimously voted to approve an extension of Dr. Soriano’s medical leave through Jan. 18, rumors  concerning his whereabouts have picked up steam.

    “He’s coming back on Tuesday. Friday will be my last day,” Dr. Lamorgese said yesterday morning. “This is his building, and I was only here temporarily.” During his absence, Dr. Lamorgese confirmed that the two have exchanged e-mails. “We’re happy that he’s returning, and we’re looking forward to his return,” said Richard Burns, the district superintendent.

    While Dr. Soriano declined to discuss his leave, he responded by e-mail to The East Hampton Star earlier in the week. Confirming his return on Jan. 22 “pending my doctor’s approval, which I think he will provide,” Dr. Soriano said, “I look very forward to getting back to work.”

    Given the duration of his absence and what some described as a mystery surrounding it, a handful of teachers and parents have speculated that Dr. Soriano may be in the process of filing a lawsuit against the district, which they surmise might be related to a decrease in his salary this year. No one at the district office would confirm or deny such speculation.

    Prior to being appointed principal last summer, Dr. Soriano had been the district’s assistant superintendent for nine years under Raymond Gualtieri, the previous superintendent. According to records compiled by the Empire Center for New York State Policy, Dr. Soriano received a salary of $205,369 from July 1, 2011, until June 30, 2012. From 2008, his salary had gone up by nearly $20,000.  But when Dr. Soriano went from being assistant superintendent to middle school principal, his compensation decreased to $180,000.

    By way of comparison, according to the same database, Dr. Lamorgese was paid $166,985 in 2011. Superintendent Burns’s salary last year was $172,827.

    Asked about Dr. Soriano’s contract, Robert Fullem, deputy general counsel at the School Administrators Association of New York State, said, “By taking a new position, the former assistant superintendent is agreeing to forego the rights he had under the prior contract. There’s nothing forbidding them from entering into a contract at lesser pay.”

    Dr. Soriano earned a doctorate in organizational leadership and education from the University of Pennsylvania. He has an M.A. from Middlebury College, a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross, and a second M.A. in educational leadership from Rutgers University.

    Keith Malsky, the assistant principal of John Marshall who is president of the district administrators union, declined to comment, refusing to say whether a lawsuit had been filed against the district on Dr. Soriano’s behalf. 

    Given Dr. Soriano’s prolonged absence, some expressed concern about the possible need for him to rely on the district’s sick leave bank. However, George Aman, the East Hampton School Board president, dismissed that, saying, “he had plenty of sick days — and could even be covered until the end of the school year if need be.”

    In Dr. Soriano’s absence, several people described his leadership style as cold and aloof, while, anticipating his return, numerous parents have expressed regret at the possibility of seeing Dr. Lamorgese go. Claude Beudert, a special education teacher at the middle school who is vice president of the teachers union, was cautiously optimistic about Dr. Soriano’s return. “If he does come back, it would be a positive thing, because it would mean that the man’s healthy,” he said. “But I hope that he uses the resources in the district to help him do his job — namely the faculty, staff, and the community. It’s really tough to go it alone.”

    “At this point, the parents don’t really know Dr. Soriano very well. We haven’t had the opportunity to work with him much,” Wendy Geehreng, president of the middle school PTA, said. She mentioned that many parents feel particularly comfortable with Dr. Lamorgese because he is a familiar face. 

    One of Dr. Lamorgese’s daily rituals has been to stand outside the school during drop off each morning. With a smile and a nod, he customarily greets every student by first name.

    “His being there has meant a lot, I can’t even begin to tell you,” said Jody Kalafut, a former vice president of the school’s PTA. “They feel so comfortable walking into school. He knows them, he knows their names, their strengths and their weaknesses.”

Hailing Student Art

    A reception for the first part of Guild Hall’s annual Student Art Festival, which opened over the weekend, will be held on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m., giving students, families, and the public a chance to see work in the galleries and on the John Drew Theater stage by children in kindergarten through eighth grade from schools across the South Fork.

    The exhibit will be open through Feb. 24. While it is up, there will be free open studio workshops for kids 5 and older on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays, except this week, from noon to 5 p.m. Materials will be supplied.

Celtic Rock for Kids

    Darlene Graham will visit the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to perform music with pop-country and Celtic-rock roots for kids. Ms. Graham grew up in Newfoundland and performed widely in Canada and the United States before moving to New York City. Her shows on Saturday will cost $10, $9 for theater members and grandparents, and $5 for children under 3.

Fleece Scarves Craft

    If this week’s cold snap puts you in mind for something a little more snuggly than the winter wear we’ve been getting away with until now, the East Hampton Library could help. Next Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m., the library will have kids 9 and older making their own fleece scarves. Advance registration has been requested.

    The accolades keep coming for Christopher Merkert, who heads the science department at the East Hampton Middle School.

    Mr. Merkert was recently nominated for a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science. It’s the federal government’s highest honor for kindergarten through 12th-grade math and science teachers.

    According to Mr. Merkert, 40, who has taught at the middle school since 1994, it’s the first time a teacher at his school has been nominated for the prestigious award. Though Mr. Merkert received word of his nomination in last week’s mail, the person who nominated him remains a mystery.

    “I’ll definitely give it a shot,” he said. The application is due on May 1, with winners announced later in the spring.

    He went on to say that innovative teaching doesn’t exist in silos but is part of a shared culture where individuals are given the freedom to pursue their varied interests.

    “Over the years, I’ve received such great support from administrators and parents,” said Mr. Merkert, a resident of East Hampton. “If you encourage a student, you’ll be amazed at what a kid will do. And the same thing goes for teachers.”

    In October, Mr. Merkert was one of 50 educators chosen to attend Google’s Teacher Academy in New York City. In May, the Science Teachers Association of New York State named him Suffolk County’s science teacher of the year for his use of “flipped teaching,” where students can watch short, instructional videos at home rather than using valuable class time.

    Mr. Merkert, who teaches eighth-grade science, is an advocate of bringing technology into the classroom whenever possible. He routinely posts questions related to his teaching on Twitter — allowing him to instantaneously interact with educators from around the country and improve upon his lesson plans accordingly.

    For the Presidential Teaching Award, applicants must demonstrate mastery of content, the use of instructional methods and strategies to track student achievement, and leadership outside the classroom, among several other factors.

    Since 1993, more than 4,200 teachers have received the award, with more than 100 educators from around the country chosen every year.

    In addition to receiving a signed certificate from President Obama, honorees will receive a $10,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and a trip to Washington, D.C., this summer.

    When Marilyn Van Scoyoc, a music teacher at East Hampton High School, thinks of her former student Gregg Rickards, she recalls a young man playing his beloved bass.

    Mr. Rickards, who grew up in Amagansett, died in August after a recurrence of cancer. He was 23.

    A member of the high school’s orchestra and jazz band, Mr. Rickards graduated in 2006. He then attended the State University at Oneonta, receiving a degree in music in 2010.

    On Friday, Feb. 1, a memorial concert will take place at 7 p.m. in the school’s auditorium. While admission is free, donations at the concert will help establish the Gregg Rickards Memorial Scholarship Fund. Following an audition, a $500 scholarship will be awarded each spring to a college-bound East Hampton High School senior planning to major or minor in music.

    “Music was a real joy in his life,” his mother, Teresa Rickards, said. “That’s really what Gregg was about — his love and his passion for music.”

    Crossroads Music in Amagansett is sponsoring the event and supplying sound equipment. It has also donated a practice amp and a custom-designed Tom Bono guitar, both of which will be raffled off at the concert. Dell Cullum, a photographer, has donated a framed photograph, and organizers are soliciting donations from other businesses.

    “He was a good customer and that’s why I asked to be involved,” said Michael Clark, the owner of Crossroads. His eldest son graduated from high school the same year as Mr. Rickards. “I would see him on a weekly basis, coming in for strings and buying several guitars.”

    Besides Mr. Clark, Mr. Rickards’s aunt, Patty Collins Sales, Ms. Van Scoyoc, and Liz Pucci, an East Hampton School Board member, are among the organizers.

    The East Hampton High School’s jazz band, which Ms. Van Scoyoc directs, will open the concert, joined by other student bands. Later, local professionals will play, including Peter Martin Weiss and Jane Hastay, the Jet Set Renegades, Casanova Frankenstein, Little Head Thinks, Third Estate, Steven and Jackson Clark, and Mama Lee and Friends, among several others.

    Anyone wishing to make a donation can also write a check to the Greater East Hampton Education Foundation,  noting that the money is to be designated for the Gregg Rickards Memorial Scholarship. The address of the foundation is P.O. Box 4175, East Hampton 11937.

    Implementing a new math curriculum will be a complex and labor-intensive but necessary process, Eleanor Tritt, the superintendent of the Amagansett School, told the school board at its meeting on Tuesday.

    Teachers and administrators are meeting with a consultant, Mariana Ristea of the Great Neck Math Enrichment Center, to come up with and put in place a new math curriculum designed to conform to the state’s standards and address test preparation for same. At its Jan. 8 meeting, the board had resolved to hire Ms. Ristea to analyze existing curriculums, identify strengths and weaknesses in mathematics, and integrate topics in newly designed curriculum guides.

    “She really brought home to us a lot of the specifics of how we’re expected to implement the new standards,” Ms. Tritt said. “They really are much more complex than originally discussed.” One significant change, she said, “is to bring the conceptual knowledge down to the lower grades. They’re introducing concepts that are a little esoteric for young children, and for parents as well. But the way Mariana presented it to us really made sense. It was very informative.”

    Ms. Tritt also told the board that the school will be participating in the E-Rate program, which dates to the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The program provides discounts so that schools and libraries have affordable access to modern telecommunications and information services.

    Participation requires “a tremendous amount of paperwork,” Ms. Tritt said, but as the school is switching to a fiber-optic network, “there’s a company that does the paperwork for a small fee. We will be starting with them now so they will have all our information. When we move to the new fiber service, we expect that we will get some funding back. At this point, we don’t know how much that will be.”

    A lockdown drill last Thursday was successful, Ms. Tritt reported. “We’re very appreciative that the East Hampton Town police officers walked through the building with us and made various suggestions,” she said. One change police and administrators agreed upon was to identify room numbers with signs on their respective windows so that first responders would be able to pinpoint the location of an emergency situation from outside the building. Further review of proposed changes will happen on Wednesday, Ms. Tritt said.

    The superintendent also addressed the Schools Against Violence in Education program. There is now a state safety committee that will be working on safety plans and making recommendations to all schools, she said. “The state has asked for district-wide plans to be submitted to them, with an exemption for single-building school districts, because the building plan, which is more detailed, gives specifics that are confidential and should not be released to the public.”

    Laura Perez, an East Hampton High School senior scholar-athlete who has applied for early admission to Yale University, recently received a $1,000 grant to underwrite volunteer work she’s doing at the Retreat from the Women’s Fund of Long Island.

    One of two students on Long Island to receive the Shapiro-McCormick Young Woman Leader Award, she said in her acceptance speech, given before a gathering of 700, that she had been “blessed to have always been supported and encouraged by my parents to go after my goals. . . . I believe everyone should be given a voice, regardless of one’s background. As Condoleeza Rice once said, ‘It doesn’t matter where you came from but where you are going.’ ”

    Through volunteering at the Retreat — “a safe haven where women are given a voice” —  she had learned, she said, how greatly domestic violence could alter a life.

    “Many of these women, often young girls, never had the courage to stand up for themselves until it was too late. That is why I feel it is so important to get involved and aim to be a part of the change. . . . To me, standing and watching from the sidelines is the same thing as doing nothing at all.”

    Aside from captaining the varsity field hockey team, Laura, who has logged over 150 hours of community service, is a member of the National Honor Society, the Key Club (which works with Kiwanis), the French Club, the Century Club, and the Retreat’s teen leadership program.

    She has interned with Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., has studied governmental procedures at the Harvard Model Congress, and was chosen by the high school’s faculty and the American Legion chapter here to attend a weeklong Empire Girls State conference this year which stressed “the importance of women’s participation in government and in leading an active community life.”

All Aboard!

    Kids of all ages can hop aboard “The Polar Express” tonight at the East Hampton Library — departure time, 5 p.m. Children have been invited to arrive at the library in pajamas to watch the animated movie, which stars Tom Hanks. Refreshments will be served and each child will receive a small gift.

    On Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon, teens can create festive beaded earrings for themselves or to give as a gift during a workshop with Jackie Dunn, a jewelry designer.

    From 1:30 to 2:15 p.m. that day, kids 3 and older with an adult can listen to a sweet story, then make a batch of oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookie batter to pop in the oven at home.

    Young gift givers 9 and older could cross someone off their list on Monday, when the library offers a workshop on making pumpkin spice hand and body sugar scrub. Kids will also have the chance to decorate a jar for the body scrub during the program, which runs from 4 to 5 p.m.

    Teens interested in astrology may want to mark their calendars, lunar and otherwise, for Tuesday and next Thursday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., when the library offers a two-part workshop on creating astrological mandalas. The workshop will introduce the 12 houses in astrology. There will be materials and poetry to inspire the creative process.

    Reservations are requested for all programs.

Lion and Mouse at the Goat

    The Crabgrass Puppet Theatre will take children on a puppet-led journey around the globe to find stories about the weak overcoming the strong and making their mark, on Saturday at 11 and 3 p.m. at the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor.

    “The Lion and the Mouse” includes tales that hail from Africa, Asia, and Europe, designed to delight children of all sizes. Tickets cost $10, $9 for members and grandparents, and $5 for children under 3. The theater is on East Union Street.

High School Playwrights Festival

    The Young American Writers Project will present its annual High School Playwrights Festival on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Stony Brook Southampton’s Avram Theater.

    Featuring six short plays written and performed by high school students from Bridgehampton, Pierson, Southampton, Eastport-South Manor, and Westhampton Beach schools and staged by professional directors, the festival is a collaboration between the student participants and professionals affiliated with Stony Brook Southampton’s M.F.A. program in creative writing and literature.

    The plays grew out of two-month playwriting residencies at each of the high schools this fall. The program’s executive director is Emma Walton Hamilton, the children’s book author, editor, and arts educator who is director of the Southampton Children’s Literature Conference and a founder and former artistic director of the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor. The program director is Will Chandler, an American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship screenwriter, who also served as education director and a teaching artist for Bay Street Theatre.

    Tickets for the festival are free and can be reserved by e-mailing [email protected].