After several months of interviews and a new administrative model, the Springs School Board announced on Friday that Dominic Mucci, the Springs superintendent from 1999 to 2002, will return to the role as interim superintendent, effective July 2.

    In a release, the school board president, Kathee Burke Gonzalez, said, “We are thrilled to have Dominic back serving in the new role of part-time superintendent. Dom is a professional committed to excellence. He brings energy, passion, and a wealth of experience back to Springs. He knows our district and is familiar with the issues we face, including the complexities of working under the 2-percent tax levy cap. With Dom’s 12 years of experience as a superintendent, he should prove to be an outstanding mentor for our principal, Eric Casale. The team of Dominic and Eric promises to be a dynamic force at Springs next year.”

    “It’s not often in your career that you get a second chance,” Mr. Mucci said on Friday evening. “Last time I was here, I was just a puppy.”

    “I’m thrilled to death,” he said, as he signed his new contract with the school board.

    Mr. Mucci’s role as part-time superintendent is part of a new initiative at Springs to create a different administrative model, one that also includes a full-time assistant principal, who is yet to be named. Mr. Mucci retired from the North Bellmore school district in 2008 and then served as superintendent for the Englewood Cliffs school system in New Jersey. He and his wife, Debi Holmes-Mucci, who was known as “Miss Debi” and formerly operated a dance school in East Hampton, already have a home in Springs.

    The departing Mr. Hartner’s most recent salary was $190,000 a year, not including benefits, retirement package, and health insurance, which brought the total closer to $238,000. Mr. Mucci is beginning his re-entry to Springs at $105,000, without additional benefits, sick days, insurance, or pension program.

   Stories, Chess, and More

    The East Hampton Library hosts a story time for children 3 and older on Sundays at 1:30 p.m.

    “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Toes,” a song, rhyme, and story time for babies and toddlers up to age 3, is offered on Mondays at 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays brings Nursery Rhyme Time at 10:30 a.m. There are parent-toddler workshops for kids 3 months to 3 years old on Wednesdays at 10 a.m., and kids (and adults) 10 and older can drop in for a game of chess on Tuesdays at 4 p.m.  

    Children 4 and older can channel Jackson Pollock during a drip-painting workshop on Fridays at 3:30 p.m. Smocks are a must. Sign-up can be made in the children’s room.

Natural Painting

    Adults, and children 6 and up with adult supervision, can sketch or paint at the South Fork Natural History Museum or outdoors in the field behind the museum, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., July 4-6 and July 11-13, or on any weekday through August.

    There is no instruction; artists and artists-in-training  may spend time on their own painting the outdoor landscape, or indoors, painting subjects from the museum’s exhibits.

    Adult nonmembers can sketch inside the museum for $7, children are $5, and members are free. A same-day tour of the museum is included in the fee. There is no charge to draw or paint outdoors.

    Laura Anker Grossman called the East Hampton School Board meeting to order for the last time on Tuesday night after 20 years of service, a bittersweet event attended by her husband, Stephen Grossman, her grandson, Mizel Faison, and a large audience of well-wishers.

    Dr. Anker was gently ribbed by Richard Burns, the district superintendent, who passed around a photo of her next to her little red Toyota hybrid, a car in which she spends an inordinate amount of time each day commuting to and from her job as a professor at the State University at Old Westbury.

    Mr. Burns read a letter, ostensibly from what he called the Privy Prius, describing Dr. Anker “with her pedal to the metal, and her ear to the phone” in her office-on-wheels.

    “She goes on and on, and on, about the schools. I know all the scoops before anyone else,” Mr. Burns read. “With her energy level, I think she could power me up.” With that, he turned serious. “As she leaves her beloved board, we will remember that she is only a phone call away.”

    The East Hampton High School chorus serenaded a tearful Dr. Anker with a rendition of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”

    Mr. Grossman read a letter from Dr. Anker’s daughter, Shanna Beth Schwartz, a third-generation educator. “I’m happy to be getting a little bit of Mom back,” he read. The letter described how Dr. Anker could always be found talking about the school and its initiatives “on the phone, in the grocery store, on the sidewalk, in the crosswalk.”

    Mary Ella Moeller, an East Hampton resident who frequently attends — and sometimes criticizes — the board, came to the podium. “It’s been very nice working with Laura,” she said. “Even if I haven’t always agreed with her.”

    “Welcome to the other side of the table as an unofficial board member,” Ms. Moeller offered.

    During her two decades on the school board, Dr. Anker said, in an interview in April, that she has seen the number of students in East Hampton who go on to college rise from less than 50 percent to around 85 percent.

    “We need to up that,” she said. “I want us to continue getting better.”

    Dr. Anker describes herself as “a child of immigrants and public education.” Her father, Irving Anker, was the New York City schools chancellor in the 1970s, overseeing the largest school district in the United States. “I grew up committed to public schools,” she said.

    Moving to East Hampton in 1986, Dr. Anker said “it took a lot of chutzpah” for her to run for East Hampton School Board within her first three years in the town. “But I really strongly believe that to be part of a community, you need to serve,” she said.

    Of her accomplishments on the board, Dr. Anker is most proud of having been instrumental in bringing a pre-kindergarten program to East Hampton, and for writing the initial grant proposal for Project MOST.

    Her daughter Rebecca was one of the first Latino students in the school system. “Diversity is a new thing for East Hampton. It’s a big adjustment,” she said. “But the world is changing. This is our global future and the future of East Hampton.”

    “When we speak of the United States and its greatness, what we’re really talking about is upward mobility, the ability for everyone, every single child, to succeed. And the key to mobility is education.”

    “And education doesn’t end when school ends,” she added. “Kids need to become lifelong learners.”

    When asked what she will do with her newly acquired time off, Dr. Anker said she plans to stay involved with the East Hampton School District on some level. Mr. Grossman joked that he would no longer be able to enjoy his Tuesday boys’ night out.

    “I’ll watch Mizel and make sure he does all his homework,” Dr. Anker told her 12-year-old grandson, whose eyes widened at the prospect.

    The next school board meeting is on July 3, when Christina DeSanti will be joining the board. As of Tuesday, there was still no decision on who would be the board’s new president.

Piano, Viola, Sax, and More

    Hamptons Music Sessions, a new summer music program for kids in kindergarten through 12th grade, will be offered at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton from Aug. 5 through 11. Students can take classes in piano, violin, viola, cello, guitar, clarinet, saxophone, flute, and composition and songwriting.

    To reserve a space, students must be registered by Sunday. The cost for the full session is $1,500, which includes lessons, classes, performances, supplies, lunch and snacks, and door-to-door transportation for kids in the East Hampton area. Financial assistance may be available.

    In addition to their studies, students will have special performance opportunities. More details can be found at hamptonsmusic.org.

Temporary Children’s Room

    The children’s room at the East Hampton Library has moved to the lower level of the building and will remain there throughout construction of the new children’s wing.

    The library hosts a story time for children 3 and older on Sundays at 1:30 p.m. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Toes, a song, rhyme, and story time for babies and toddlers up to age 3, is offered on Mondays at 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays bring Nursery Rhyme Time for the little ones at 10:30 a.m. There are parent-toddler workshops for kids 3 months to 3 years old on Wednesdays at 10 a.m., and kids (and adults) 12 and older can drop in for chess on Tuesdays at 4 p.m.

    On Friday, July 29, children 4 and older can channel Jackson Pollock during a drip-painting workshop at 3:30 p.m. Smocks are a must. Sign-up is required for all but drop-in chess and the Sunday story time.

Papier-Maché

    At the Children’s Museum of the East End on Saturday, kids 4 and older can get goopy and creative during a papier-maché workshop. The fun will start at 11 a.m. The cost is $23, $10 for members. Advance registration is required. The museum is in Bridgehampton on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

At the Goat

    Puppet shows commence again this morning at 11 at the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor when Puppetree presents “Scaredy Cat,” about a cat who’s afraid of just about everything and needs the audience’s help to overcome his fears. The show will be repeated tomorrow and Saturday at the same time.

    Tickets cost $10, $9 for members and grandparents, and $5 for children under 3. Next week’s show, offered next Thursday, Friday, July 29, and July 30, will be “The Three Little Pigs.”

    The theater is also running a Tot Camp on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings from 9:30 to noon, July 10 through Aug. 27. The cost is $200 per week, $750 per month, or $1,400 for an eight-week session.

    The theater is on East Union Street behind Christ Episcopal Church.

Summer Reading, Movies

    The Hampton Library in Bridgehampton will kick off its Dream Big, Read! summer reading club for kids up to 12, including those not yet able to read, tomorrow from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

    On Saturday, the library will show a Dreamworks double feature starting at 12:30 p.m. First up will be “How to Train Your Dragon,” recommended for kids 8 to 12, followed by “Puss in Boots,” which is recommended for kids 6 to 10. Popcorn will be provided.

    Frank Vespe of Springs was proud when his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and her best friend, Elizabeth Walker, 15, of Montauk, put on a musical performance at a Levittown music store showcase. Proud enough, in fact, that he put a video of their performance of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” and “Let It Be” by the Beatles on YouTube so his brother in Westchester could enjoy it too.

    When Michael X. Hartofelis, an attorney and music producer from Holtsville, phoned to ask if he could produce a song with thElizabeths, as the girls call themselves, Mr. Vespe was sure it was a prank.

    “I thought one of my friends was pulling my leg,” he said in an e-mail. “It wasn’t until he sent over a two-page legal release asking for me to sign did I believe him.”

    The video, filmed during a “monster music showcase” on Feb. 12, shows Elizabeth Vespe, who plays guitar, accompanying the dulcet tones of Elizabeth Walker on vocals. Both girls attend East Hampton High School, where Ms. Vespe plays the violin in the school orchestra, and Ms. Walker sings with the chorus.

    Mr. Vespe is a professional videographer who often tapes music events at Crossroads Music and the Stephen Talkhouse, both in Amagansett.

    In a statement, Mr. Hartofelis said that his favorite band was the Beatles. “When a friend told me about these two girls, thElizabeths, singing ‘Let It Be,’ I had to check it out. I was floored to see these two young girls performing so well, and I knew I had to produce a song with them.”

    For the past two weekends the girls have been in a recording studio in Holtsville, up to 10 hours per session. “Where is the Rain?” the song that thElizabeths recorded, is an original tune penned by Mr. Hartofelis, and is in the final mixing stages.

    Mr. Hartofelis stated in an e-mail that “once the song is finished, I plan to release it to radio stations and record labels. And I have a great idea for a music video, too.”

    Elizabeth Vespe found the best part of the experience was getting to play a $2,500 Taylor guitar. “Maybe my father will buy me one,” she said.

    Gifts and hugs were doled out to Michael Hartner, the departing Springs superintendent, at Monday night’s school board meeting, but Kathee Burke Gonzalez, the board’s president, said that the new superintendent, who will be part-time, will not be named until the end of the week.

    “Hopefully we will have a fully executed contract by then,” she said. The start date for both the new part-time superintendent and the new administrative position of assistant principal is July 2.

    There are three candidates for the superintendent role and two finalists for assistant principal. The three superintendent candidates include a former Springs superintendent, Dominic Mucci; a retired assistant superintendent from the Center Moriches School District, Francis Mazura, and Raymond Fell, who led a community forum as a search consultant with the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Education Services but withdrew when he decided to throw his hat into the Springs ring.

    No information was available about the finalists for assistant principal.

    In the meantime, Ms. Gonzalez commended Mr. Hartner for being an “outstanding leader.” There will be a retirement party in his honor on Monday at Andrra Restaurant in East Hampton.

    Jessica Vickers made a last-ditch effort on Tuesday to get the Montauk School Board to reverse the decision to change prekindergarten from a full-day program to a half-day one when the new school year starts in September.

    A reading teacher at the Springs School who was born and raised in Montauk and attended the Montauk School, Ms. Vickers questioned whether a two-and-a-half-hour program would be enough to fulfill the academic and social needs of preschoolers. She said that as a teacher she has a hard time preparing kindergarten students for first grade with a full-day program.

    “I’m really worried about it,” she said. “I’m coming here to beg you to reconsider.”

    During budget talks in March, the school board announced that the expected pre-K enrollment for next year was about 42 students, and as a result a third class would be needed to continue a full-day program. Budget constraints, which included the state’s 2-percent cap on tax levy increases, would, however, not accommodate that.

    If enrollment dropped would the board reconsider, Ms. Vickers asked. Jack Perna, the district superintendent, said the school can’t take that chance. He said if parents were to send their children elsewhere to school and then learned that the full program was reinstated, they might decide to return the students to Montauk. “We’d be in the same position we are now,” he said.

    “We made our decision,” Diane Hausman, the school board president, said. “We’ve had endless talks about it, and we’re backing up Mr. Perna.”

    Ms. Vickers wondered if the program would go back to full time next year and was told the board wouldn’t know that until the enrollment numbers came in at that time.

    “As of right now, this is a half-day program,” Mr. Perna said, ending the discussion.

Roof Worries

    Prior to that, two school custodians, Patrick Moloney and Kevin Mulligan, gave a rough estimate of the cost of replacing the roof and possibly installing solar panels in an area over the gym that is old and in some places rotting. The school has made efforts to be environmentally friendly since before it was the popular thing to do, but jaws dropped when the numbers for a high-efficiency solar roof were stated — almost $330,000. An available rebate of $87,500 would bring the cost down to about $240,000. Standard-efficiency panels with the same rebate would cost about $213,000.

    To replace the shingled roof, which should never have been shingled to begin with, Mr. Moloney said, the cost would be about $72,000, which the school has already set aside for the project.

    The gym roof, approximately 7,200 square feet, is now is pitched at 2/12, meaning that for every one foot, the roof rises two inches. The minimum pitch for a shingled roof should be 3/12, according to a report submitted to board members by Roof Services of Deer Park, one of only two companies that bid on the project.

    The new roof would be made of rubber and able to withstand winds of 75 miles per hour and heavy loads of snow. “Even if you don’t go solar, you should go to the rubber,” Mr. Moloney said.

    “I’d say strip it and do it now,” Lisa Ward, a board member, said.

    As the discussion ensued, the board decided to continue looking into the solar panels, the price of which could be included in next year’s budget proposal. Members also learned that the rubber roof comes in three colors, black, gray, or white, with black being the least expensive.

    “Well, black it is,” Ms. Ward said.

    Mr. Perna said he would submit the plans to the school’s attorney for consideration. “And then we’ll get started.”

Drop ’n’ Dine

    Every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., parents can Drop ’n’ Dine at the Surf Lodge in Montauk. Children can engage in locally and globally themed art projects using a variety of mediums while their parents enjoy a quiet dinner together. The free program is for ages 4 and older and runs, rain or shine, through Labor Day. The number to call to reserve a spot is 347-391-4004.

Camp Shakespeare

    Camp Shakespeare will be at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett from July 30 through Aug. 10. Participants ages 8 to 15 will explore acting, improvisation, movement, and voice with trained theater educators. More information is online at hamptons-shakespeare.org/camp.

Video and Photo Awards

    The cable channel MSG Varsity has awarded Zoe Wang, Irene Chen, John Cheng, Chloe Wan, Han Jiang, and Candice Liu of the Ross School V-Award honorable mentions for their video short “Unfamiliar.” More than 2,100 submissions were received for the competition, which celebrates excellence in media productions by students and aims to encourage a new generation of broadcast professionals. For their accomplishment, the school will be given $1,000.

    Another Ross School student, Lea Winkler, won an honorable mention in the Southampton Youth Bureau’s contest “The Animals Around Us” for a photo she took at the Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Noyac. A display of all of the submissions is on view at Southampton Town Hall through July 15.

For Father’s Day

    Children ages 4 to 6 can make a gift for Dad at a Father’s Day story time today from 4 to 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. Registration by phone has been requested.

    Also in the children’s room, kids 4 and up can take part in a Day at the Beach art program tomorrow from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. They will make their own beach scenes with shells, rocks, and other shore finds.

FamilyFest’s Back

    The Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation is bringing back its summer FamilyFest series on July 12, when the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival’s kid-friendly “The Taming of the Shrew” will be the first of four programs.

    On July 26 there will be a performance of “Peter and the Wolf” by the Hampton Ballet Theater School and the Hampton Chamber Orchestra. The Jabali Acrobats will be on hand on Aug. 9, and on Aug. 23 the FreeCycle Action Sports Team will entertain with BMX, skateboarding, and street bike action.

    The Children’s Museum of the East End will hold classes for children ages 2 to 4 at the Montauk Playhouse on Mondays this summer. Classes are to include cooking, crafts, and gardening. More information is at CMEE’s Web site.

    It really wasn’t all that long ago when most people in the world knew which herbs, wild-growing fruits and vegetables, and tree barks were good to eat or to cure what ailed you. However, through industrialization and general busyness, it is a skill that we, as a people, largely lack today.

    Now Mark Mobius, a teacher from the Hayground School who served in the Peace Corps and holds a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University, is looking to change that, at least for the younger set.

    The EcoDiscovery Experience offers young children, ages 5 to 7, a chance this summer to hunt for salamanders, snack on wild berries, climb trees, and “learn about a diverse range of natural history topics, wilderness skills, and country wisdom,” according to its brochure.

    So what exactly does Mr. Mobius mean by “country wisdom”?

    “It’s a broad subject area,” he said. “It encompasses some things I think people learn just by spending time in rural areas, and other knowledge that gets passed down through generations by people who live close to the land and sea.” 

    Mr. Mobius, a native Shelter Islander, recalled that when he was a child “we always anticipated the arrival of weakfish to our local waters by watching for the lilacs to bloom.” Country wisdom also includes finding and using native plants and developing a general awareness of nature “that has historically been useful in rural life,” he said. “It’s like a crash course in being a country kid.”

    He emphasized that the EcoDiscovery Experience isn’t a summer camp, per se. There are only two groups, each with a maximum of eight kids and three staff members. “Having such a small group allows us to cover a lot of ground and change course easily,” he said. Also, he said, activities won’t be repeated, so “a participant could join us for a day or a week and have a great time, or could spend all eight weeks with us and never get bored.”

    The classes will meet on Shelter Island at Sylvester Manor, the 243-acre nonprofit educational farm and historic plantation, and in Amagansett at the Peconic Land Trust’s preserves. “We get access to a lot of places and trails where summer camps can’t go because of their size,” Mr. Mobius explained.

    The programs run through July and August, and Mr. Mobius is looking forward to finding the treasures of nature with his groups.

    “Box turtles are an increasingly rare treasure to run across in the woods,” he said. “Berries — it’s amazing how motivating a berry patch can be once the kids learn how delicious wine berries, blackberries, and blueberries are. And I always love to find things interacting — bugs and plants, roots and rocks, wind and seeds — anything that makes you ask why or how.”

    “What I’d really like for the kids to get out of the program is an awareness of, comfort in, and a respect for nature,” Mr. Mobius stated. “These traits will allow them to learn many more lessons than any summer program could teach.”

    Mr. Mobius can be e-mailed at [email protected].

    Sixteen juniors from four South Fork high schools were honored Monday night at an East Hampton Star All-Star awards dinner at East Hampton Point restaurant. David Rattray, the editor of the newspaper, introduced representatives of the Bridgehampton, East Hampton, Pierson, and Ross schools, who, in turn, introduced their nominees and spoke about each student’s accomplishments.

    The awards are given each year to recognize high-school juniors’ academic excellence as well as talents and contributions to their schools and communities. School administrators make the individual selections.

    From East Hampton the students were: Elias Van Sickle, Brock Lownes, Nicolas Zablotsky, Michael Burns, and Laura Gunderson. Ian Lynch could not attend.

    Pierson High School named Joseph S. Faraguna, Rachel Saidman, Timothy Megna, and Sara Hartman. Bridgehampton selected Vanessa Cruz and Made Aditya Nugraha. The Ross School tapped Kate Nelson, Gavin Nelson, Sam Kramer, and Isabell Milligan.

Bridgehampton School

Made Aditya Nugraha, Vanessa Cruz

East Hampton High School

Elias Van Sickle, Brock Lownes, Nicolas Zablotsky, Michael Burns, Laura Gunderson. (Not shown: Ian Lynch)

Pierson High School

Timothy Megna, Rachel Saidman, Sara Hartman. (Not shown: Joseph C. Faraguna)

Ross School

Sam Kramer, Gavin Nelson, Kate Nelson, Isabell Milligan