Cartooning Workshop

    The Bridgehampton Historical Society, along with the Charles Addams Foundation, is hosting a cartooning workshop from June 25 through 29, for children and young adults. Mr. Addams was mostly known for his Addams Family characters.

    Workshops will be taught by Peter Spacek, an illustrator who also does the weekly cartoon in The Star, and will be held at the Bridgehampton Historical Society archives building at 2539A Montauk Highway from 9 to 11 a.m. for ages 8 through 11, and from 1 to 3 p.m. for ages 12 and over. 

    Each session is $200 per person and advance registration is requested through the historical society.

At Amagansett Library

    A water-safety instructor for the East Hampton Y.M.C.A.-East Hampton RECenter will be on hand at tomorrow’s 10 a.m. Shake, Rattle, and Roll program at the Amagansett Library. The free program is for children up to 3 years old and an adult caregiver.

    On Saturday, families who are wild about books can indulge their love during a story and craft time at 3:30 p.m. Kids will make bookmarks after the story time.

“The Sleeping Beauty” in Southampton

    Students of the Conservatory of Ballet and Danse Arts in Bridgehampton will take their toe shoes on the road this weekend to present the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty” at Southampton High School. Shows are tomorrow and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2.

    Tickets cost $15 for adults and $10 for kids 2 to 16 and people over 65. Children under 2 are admitted for free.

GPS for Kids

    Orienteering anyone? Kids in 7th through 10th grades can learn the basics of using a GPS in the field during a workshop on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton.

    Maria Metzger will be the instructor. That evening at 7:30, families can listen for the sounds of the June night with Crystal Possehl, a nature educator. Advance registration is requested for all programs.

    The museum is on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

   Sixteen juniors from four South Fork high schools were honored Monday night at an East Hampton Star Academic 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: Michael Burns, Laura Gunderson, Brock Lownes, Ian Lynch, Elias Van Sickle, and Nicolas Zablotsky.

   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

Creative Theater Camp

    The Southampton Cultural Center is staging a one-week summer camp, from June 25 through 29, for budding thespians.

    The workshop, called “Creatively Creating Characters,” is for students 9 through 13, and seeks to introduce theater basics through improvisation, movement, character exploration, and more.

    The class will be held from 1 to 5 p.m., and enrollment is limited to 15 students. The cost is $550, and early registration is suggested.

Heroic Students

    The Southampton Intermediate School — and most notably Melissa Mitchell’s eighth-grade English language arts class — has been studying the Holocaust and making clay bones to contribute to the One Million Bones project in Washington, D.C. But before the bones end up there, they will be showcased in an exhibition at the Watermill Center with a reception on Saturday.

    One Million Bones, according to its Web site, “is a large-scale social arts practice . . . to raise awareness of genocides and atrocities going on around the world, this very day.” A collaborative installation on the National Mall in the spring of 2013 seeks to display 1 million bones, many with the names of victims of genocide.

    Ms. Mitchell’s eighth graders have constructed the bones based on contact they have made with survivors of mass genocides.

    The exhibition is scheduled to open on Saturday with a reception from 3 to 5 p.m., and will be on show through the end of the month. The Watermill Center is on Water Mill-Towd Road.

Family Tour at the Parrish

    The Parrish Art Museum, which is hosting the “E.S.T.-3: Southern California in New York” contemporary art exhibition, is offering a free family tour, conducted by Madolin Archer, an arts educator, on Sunday at 2 p.m.

    The exhibit focuses on the emergence of Los Angeles as an art capital in the postwar years. After the tour, families are invited next door to the Carroll Petrie Center for Education, where they can create their own artwork inspired by the show.

    No advance registration is required.

At East Hampton Library

    The East Hampton Library is holding a Recycled Stepping Stones workshop tomorrow for children 4 and over.

    After learning how many professional and well-known artists use recycled items to create art, attendees will be given a chance to do the same by mixing cement and using bottle caps, Legos, and other trinkets to create a stepping stone of recycled materials for a garden.

    The program will be held from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Advance registration is not required.

Parrish at Jermain

    The Parrish Art Museum will sponsor a series of Saturday workshops at the John Jermain Memorial Library’s temporary headquarters in Sag Harbor in June.

    In the workshops, children in kindergarten through fifth grade will create mixed-media artworks inspired by the Parrish’s exhibition “The Landmarks of New York.” The free sessions will be held from 11 a.m. to noon through June 16, with a final workshop at the museum in Southampton on June 23. Space is limited and advance registration is required.

Zoo Creatures

    The Amagansett Library will host a Zoo-La-La story and craft time for families on Saturday at 3 p.m. After reading about zoo animals, participants will make lion masks. The program is free.

    Each generation teaches the next, and at East Hampton High School, the oldest grades are teaching the youngest, twice a week, 12 weeks a year, in a second-semester class called Food and Fun.

    “The program is part of our child development and psychology classes,” said Lisa Shaw, the family and consumer sciences teacher.

    “We invite children from the community to join us in the classroom for a preschool program which is directed by our high school students,” she said. “The students develop mentor relationships with the children and write the lessons for the program. They get to actually teach.”

    Although the name includes the word “food,” “nutrition is just a component,” Ms. Shaw said. “At the center is really science, math, some skill.”

    The program was started over a dozen years ago by Debbie Clemence, and Ms. Shaw has been at the helm for the past three years. This spring, it had 14 preschool-age children and 14 high school students. “It’s been filling up quicker each year,” she said.

    A flier goes to the East Hampton Day Care and Learning Center, but children ages 3 to 5 who are not enrolled there are welcomed too. “It provides a service to the community,” Ms. Shaw said. “It gives parents an opportunity to have an extra hour and a half to run around.”

    Last Thursday, the toddlers were munching on strawberries and stringing necklaces made of Cheerios. “Each student has to develop a lesson,” Ms. Shaw explained. “There’s one lesson for each day. And the lesson is broken down into separate activities.”

    All lessons involve a read-aloud period and then an activity relating to what was read “that teaches the child something.” The alphabet was being taught last week, and one eager participant was seen strolling down the hallway after class with her father and younger sibling, reciting her ABCs.

    “There’s a snack time too, always very popular,” she said with a laugh. The focus is on healthy snacks with fresh ingredients.

    There is fairly fierce competition to get a spot in the spring semester class. “There’s a lot of interest in child development,” said Ms. Shaw. “But most importantly, most of the students who choose this class really like children.” The students who take the course learn to spot the developmental differences between, say, a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old. Students keep a journal of their findings, which is turned into Ms. Shaw for review. “Everybody learns,” she said.

    The program also teaches the high school students about prenatal and pregnancy care, and about methods of birthing. Currently the course has 13 females and 1 male. “I would like to have more boys,” Ms. Shaw said.

    Since the program has been around for 14 years, recently Ms. Shaw has enjoyed seeing high school seniors take the class who were toddlers in the class all those years ago. “It’s amazing to see them, to hear them talk about that experience, and how well they remember it,” she said with a smile. “Some of them said they couldn’t wait to give back what they had learned here.”

July Art Workshops

    The Community Arts Project will be offering up art workshops for children 6 to 12 on Mondays and Tuesdays in July, one from 11 a.m. to noon and another from 2 to 3 p.m. The cost will be $20 per class, including materials.

    The teacher, Roisin Bateman, will teach and cover a range of art disciplines in different media. Classes will be held at the Springs Presbyterian Church. Those wishing to find out more or to register can contact Ms. Bateman at [email protected].

At the Library

    In addition to its ongoing children’s programs like story time, drop-in chess, and parent-toddler workshops, the East Hampton Library will host a Print a Face class tomorrow from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

    Based on Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” and the work of other famous artists who used printmaking as their preferred media, young artists 4 and up will be able to use Styrofoam printing techniques to create their works.

    Registration is required.

Drip Painting for Kids

    Starting on Saturday, families will have a chance to end their tour of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center with a little art of their own.

    Following a family tour led Joyce Raimondo, children will then have a chance to create drip art like Pollock’s on a professional canvas. The $35 fee includes all the materials and admission to the house and museum.

    The drip painting workshops for kids will begin this Saturday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and will run on other Saturdays in June, July, August, and beyond. Parents can find out more or preregister their child online at imaginearted.com.

Baby Buggy

    The Amagansett Library is rolling out two kids’ programs this weekend. Tomorrow, restless children ages 5 and up can shake, rattle, and roll during “Street Games,” which focuses on those games of youth like hopscotch, hula-hoop, mini basketball, and more. That program begins at 4 p.m.

    On Saturday, families are invited to learn about all things creepy-crawly, when the library hosts a Buggy Bugs story and craft time at 3:30 p.m.

Student-Curated Art Show

    The work of Paton Miller and Kryn Olson, local professional artists, will be on display this weekend, when the Ross Gallery presents its annual student-curated exhibition.

    The Ross School seventh graders get this opportunity each year. They visit artists’ studios, select and install the works, organize the publicity, and write and edit an art catalog. The reception, which will be held tomorrow from 4 to 6 p.m. at 18 Goodfriend Drive in East Hampton, represents the fruits of their labor.

    The exhibit will remain on view through June 12.

    There was tension apparent at polling places on the East End yesterday, and likely around the state as well, as voters were given the chance to approve or reject the first school budgets required to come under the newly imposed 2-percent property tax cap.

    Amagansett was the only school locally that chose to pierce the cap, due primarily to increased enrollment, which brought the budget in at a 5.21-percent increase over last year’s, or around $323,000. A 60-percent voter “supermajority” was necessary for it to pass. Voters approved the $9.66 million budget by over 70 percent, 252 to 98.

    “We are really very appreciative that the community has supported our programs, and that we can continue providing these excellent standards for our children,” Eleanor Tritt, the school superintendent, said yesterday. Also in Amagansett, Mary Lownes, the incumbent, retained her seat against the challenger, Rona Klopman, by a vote of 252-81.

    In spite of a last-minute e-mail blast by a local woman imploring residents to vote no, Springs approved the district budget, 434 to 139.

    Dawn Flagg said in a letter sent to the school board, the East Hampton Town Board, and a contingent of Springs residents on Tuesday afternoon, that Springs has the most expensive school taxes in the East End. “Vote it down, vote it down, vote it down, down, down,” she wrote.

    The $24.63 million budget reflected over $700,000 worth of cuts imposed by the school board to stay under the tax cap, including the elimination of six teaching positions, and showed a tax rate increase of 3.19 percent, due almost entirely to approximately $1 million lost in non-tax revenue. John B. Grant, the vice president of the school board, retained his seat against the challenger,  Dennis Donatuti, 381 to 153.

    East Hampton, which cut $2.85 million from its proposed budget to come in under the tax cap, presented a $62.84 million budget, a 2.43-percent decrease from this year’s budget of $64.4 million. Voters approved it 454 to 109, and the mood at East Hampton High School was one of excitement and relief as the numbers came in. Richard Burns, the new superintendent, beamed and shook hands with school board members, all of whom stayed after a board meeting to hear the results and adopt the budget resolution.

    Liz Pucci ran unopposed to retain her seat on the East Hampton School Board and received 503 votes. With 484 votes, Christina DeSanti was elected to a new three-year term to take the place of Laura Anker Grossman, the school board president, who is stepping down after 20 years.

    Montauk saw Kelly White, who ran unopposed, retain her seat, and the $18.5 million budget pass by a vote of 214-68.

    In Wainscott, the budget of $3.5 million passed 40-2. David Eagan retained his seat, unopposed, on the board with 27 votes, and Kelly Anderson, a new board member, was elected with 32 votes to fill the seat vacated by Iris Osborn.

    Sagaponack embraced its $1.68 million budget, 25-1, and ratified its existing tuition contracts with the East Hampton and Sag Harbor districts, 26-0. Joseph Louchheim was reelected to a three-year term with 23 votes and three abstentions.

    In Sag Harbor, the proposed budget of $34.1 million, which represented a 2.88-percent increase over last year’s, passed 892-420. Walter Wilcoxen and Gregg Schiavoni were reelected to the board by 795 and 1,039 votes respectively, while Tom Gleeson, the challenger,  received 576 votes, not enough for election.

    Bridgehampton saw all three incumbents — Lillian Tyree Johnson, Ronald White, and Douglas DeGroot — retain their seats against Gabriella Bria, the challenger. The budget of $10.7 million was approved, 109-54.

    On the South Fork, only Tuckahoe, which proposed an over-9.5-percent increase in the tax rate, did not pass muster. The $17.8 million school budget, which did not pierce the cap, was voted down 275-228. The budget will go before voters again in June, and if rejected a second time, the district will be forced to adopt a contingency budget instead.

Ross Spring Musical

    Known as the Broadway musical that allowed Sid Caesar to portray a multitude of roles, “Little Me” is coming to Ross School this weekend. The Neil Simon comedy, which takes place partly in Southampton, will be presented at the school’s Center for Well-Being at 18 Goodfriend Drive in East Hampton.

     “I like how this musical touches on class issues, and it’s very funny,” said Gerard Doyle, the director. “It has a local connection, and it’s sophisticated in that the comedy has to be played very well in order for it to work.”  

    The first performance is tonight at 7, with two more shows tomorrow and Saturday also at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the door — $20 for adults and $10 for students and senior citizens.

Flowers, Fitness, and More

    The Amagansett Library is hosting three programs for children and their families this weekend, starting with Shake, Rattle, and Roll tomorrow at 10 a.m., for parents and caregivers with toddlers up to 3 years old. During interactive play, there will also be a parent educator from the Cornell Cooperative Extension on hand to answer questions about child development.

    Tomorrow at 4 p.m., kids 5 and up and their families can indulge in nostalgic street games like hopscotch, red light-green light, hula-hooping, and mini basketball.

    And on Saturday at 3 p.m., attendees will celebrate this time of year with stories and crafts that honor the May flowers, which come after April showers, or in this year’s case, during the May showers.

In East Hampton

    Over at the East Hampton Library, there is plenty for kids to do throughout the week. On Saturday at 11 a.m., kids of all ages can pull in to the Creation Station to make projects of their own design using supplies from the library’s craft closet. Sunday story times for kids 3 and older are held 1:30 p.m. and there’s a “twinkle, twinkle, little toes” story time for toddlers on Mondays at 11:30 a.m.

    Most Tuesdays bring a “nursery rhyme time” at 10:30 a.m., and a parent and toddler workshop is offered on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Finally, young ones can grab their teddy bears and head to the library for pajama story time on Wednesday evenings at 6.

Japanese Spring Fest

    The Hampton Library in Bridgehampton will celebrate the cultural traditions of Japan during a Japanese Spring Festival for families on Tuesday from 5 to 6:40 p.m. There will be Japanese stories and samples of the country’s cuisine, and people can also try their hands at writing a haiku or making a paper crane for good luck.

    In addition to regularly scheduled story and play times, this week at the library T will host a Sunday afternoon tea and story time for kids 4 and older from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., and on Tuesday children 10 and older can play good old-fashioned board games from 3:30 and 4:30 p.m.

    “I’m disappointed in this budget,” Stuyvesant Wainwright IV, a parent, said during the public hearing portion of Monday night’s Springs School budget meeting. “I feel like you sold out the school.” He spoke of the community forum on Feb. 11, when, he claimed, “70 percent of the community said to get rid of prekindergarten.”

    Mr. Wainwright said he believed the board has “favored kindergarten through fifth grade at the expense of the middle school.” Because of budget constraints, the board has eliminated several teaching positions, restructured the sixth grade, and cut interscholastic middle school sports in conjunction with the East Hampton schools. It has also discontinued funding for the after-school program Project MOST.

    “I don’t feel this budget reflects the wishes of the community,” Deb Foster, a former school board member and vocal attendee of its meetings, said. “This is where you guys are not serving the taxpayers or the students.”

    Mary McPartland echoed those thoughts: “We rescued the elementary school,” she said. “We did not rescue the middle school.” She acknowledged that she has “very little skin left in the game,” as her son is a seventh grader, but she spoke passionately, as did Janice Varizi, another parent, about the importance of the sports programs that are being cut.

    “It’s not only about Springs,” Ms. McPartland said. “The high school teams draw heavily from this district. How will it affect them?”

    Ms. McPartland and Ms. Varizi said they are looking into starting a booster club, a common occurrence in other districts nationwide. Booster clubs are individual nonprofit organizations that can hold benefits to raise money for particular programs and then funnel that money to the school.

    Also on Monday, John Foster, the school’s health teacher, gave a presentation on sex education, which is currently touched upon lightly in fifth grade with a film — one for boys and one for girls — and then not discussed again until eighth grade. Mr. Foster’s plan spreads out sex ed throughout the middle school, with individual topics of contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, hygiene, and sexual orientation, among others.

    “A parent will have the right to allow their child to not attend,” he said.

    “There needs to be a dialogue,” said Kathee Burke Gonzalez, the school board president. “You gave a tremendous presentation, but when you talk about teaching contraception in sixth grade, I go, ‘Whoa!’ It sounds, to me, like going a little too far.”

    Ms. Gonzalez asked the crowd to “have patience” on Tuesday during the budget and board vote, since the district is reverting this year to paper ballots.

    She also said there was a “tremendous turnout” for the meet-the-candidates night for potential superintendents on April 26. Also, 235 people applied for the job of assistant principal, a new position at the school. The field has been narrowed to eight candidates who will be interviewed by the board.

    Ms. Gonzalez said she anticipates that the names of the new district superintendent and assistant principal will be announced at the June 11 school board meeting.

    At the end of a Montauk School Board meeting on Tuesday that was attended by the school attorney, Bill Cullen, who is rarely at board meetings, a group of teachers remained in their seats after it was adjourned into an executive session. They stayed on to discuss a counterproposal that the teachers association presented to the board regarding teacher contract negotiations, which have been ongoing for more than a year. The teachers are now working under an existing contract.

    Yesterday morning, Jack Perna, the district superintendent, said there were no determinations made in the executive session beyond the fact that the board agreed to reduce two to three teacher positions to part time next year, which would enable the school to stay within the state’s 2-percent cap on tax levy increases.

    At a meeting on April 17, the board passed a resolution that specifically authorized Mr. Perna to take the “necessary and appropriate actions” for a partial reorganization of teaching staff and programs for the 2012-13 school year. It would go into effect on July 1.

    Teacher salaries and tuition to East Hampton High School make up an estimated half of the school’s budget proposal of $18.5 million for the 2012-13 fiscal year, with a little less than $5 million being paid to regular and special education instructors.

    When residents vote on the budget proposal on Tuesday, there will be a proposition on the ballot asking them to approve a five-year tuition contract with the East Hampton School District. The cost to educate Montauk students who attend the high school next year is listed at about $4.5 million. Voting will take place in the school gym from 2 to 8 p.m. Kelly White, a school board member, is running unopposed for a second five-year term.

    Board members learned Tuesday that in 1972 the Montauk School added four portable classrooms, which are now used as three classrooms and a storage area, on the east side of the building. They were supposed to last for 10 years but are still being used. When the cost of repairs came up, however, the board began considering ditching them and adding a permanent structure.

    “That was a superintendent’s dream,” Mr. Perna said after the meeting. He explained that new portables could be rented for three years before they are permanently attached. After the three years, any add-on structures would have to go before the public in a referendum.

    “It would make more sense,” Diane Hausman, the school board president, said, referring to purchasing new ones instead of paying the increasing cost of maintaining the old ones.

    “Get rid of them and expand the building,” Lisa Ward, a board member, said. “I prefer an add-on or something that becomes a part of the gym.”

    They decided to study it further and handed the research project over to Ms. Ward and Therese Watson, another board member, both of whom are on the building and grounds committee.

    Also at the meeting, Ms. Hausman read a letter from Lawrence Cooke, the chairman of the Montauk Indian Museum committee, asking the board for its support for a plan to improve an existing structure on the grounds of Second House Museum to house the Indian Museum. He wrote in the letter that the committee recently received site plan approval from East Hampton Town.

    “It will probably be something very beneficial and something the kids will use,” Ms. Hausman said. “I don’t see why we wouldn’t want it.” The board fully supported the project.

For Girls’ Empowerment

Teenage girls from across the East End have been invited to attend the Girls Health, Wellness, and Empowerment Conference on Saturday at Riverhead High School. The conference, which will run from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., will focus on motivating young women to take control of their health, fitness, and general well-being, encouraging them to “become strong leaders, employees, or entrepreneurs.”

Among its sponsors are Girls Inc., the Pederson-Krag Center, Riverhead High School, the Suah Center for Natural Healthcare, Peconic Pediatrics, and the Retreat. Topics of discussion will include health, dieting, healthy relationships, stress management, and fitness. Those interested in attending can contact the organizer, Maria Spera, at 591-5950, 294-1540, or Maria.spera@ riverhead.net.

Clay and Apples

At the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton on Saturday, kids 6 to 10 can experiment with air-dry clay during a drop-off workshop from 10 to 11 a.m. Also starting at 10 that morning, younger children 2 to 6 years old can work with their families to make mini apple pies using apples donated by the Milk Pail of Water Mill. The program also includes a story time. The cost of each is $15 plus museum admission, or $10 for members. Advance registration is required.

Loads at the Libraries

At the local libraries this week, children’s programs will focus on music, art, Thanksgiving, and creatures in danger of becoming extinct.

Lori Hubbard will be at the Montauk Library on Saturday at 2 p.m. to sing songs with preschoolers and their older siblings.

At the Amagansett Library that afternoon at 3:30, kids in first grade and up will hear some endangered species success stories. On Monday at 3:30 p.m., gardeners from the Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons will pay a visit to the library to plant amaryllis bulbs with children in kindergarten through sixth grade.

A Minecraft 101 class will introduce kids 8 and up to the basics of this popular game on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. Computers will be available for beginners; more experienced players have been invited to take their own devices to play. Also, children 6 and older can make beaded pumpkins for the holiday table on Sunday 1:30 p.m.

A Thanksgiving story time and craft session on Tuesday at the East Hampton Library will keep kids 4 to 6 busy from 4 to 5 p.m. On Wednesday, the library’s young teen book club for sixth through eighth graders will discuss November’s book from 4 to 5 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 21, brings a Rene Magritte art program to the East Hampton Library and a Finish the Picture drawing session to the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton, both for kids 4 and older. The Magritte program runs from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.; the Hampton Library one begins at 4:30.

Advance sign-up has been requested for all library programs.

The Magic of Magnets

The South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton will explore the magic of magnets with kids 6 to 9 on Sunday at 10 a.m. Participants will learn about magnets’ scientific properties, how a magnetic field affects life on earth, and do a few tricks using things commonly found around the house. There is a $3 materials fee in addition to museum admission. Advance registration is required.