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

    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].

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.

    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.”

    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.

    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.

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.

    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.

    “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.

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.