Classically trained student musicians from three South Fork schools will play in a concert on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor to benefit Katy’s Courage. The not-for-profit was created to honor Katy Stewart, a 12-year-old who died from a rare form of pediatric liver cancer.

    The students, ages 11 through 17, have performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall, and will play works by Bach, Chopin, Schubert, Boccherini, and Mozart.

    The performers will be Benjamin Pereira, a Southampton sophomore, on violin; Maxfield Panish, an East Hampton High School senior, and his brother, Leo, from East Hampton Middle School, on violin, and from Pierson High School, the seniors Emily Verneuille on clarinet, Grant Kusick on guitar, and Chris Beroes-Haigis on cello, Emmanuelle Benard, a seventh-grader, on piano, and Ella Patrick, a fifth-grader, on piano.

    Nat Sassoon, a sixth grader from New York City, will be a special guest, contributing his piano and vocal skills.

    All the young musicians already have impressive résumés.

    Nate was the winner of Orfeo Piano Concerto competition in 2011, and had his first piano recital at Steinway Hall in New York in 2010 with an orchestral debut in 2011 in Vipiteno, Italy. He was accepted to the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus when he was 5 years old.

    Maxfield won the 2010 Elizabeth Brockman Award for Classical Music. He attends the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Program and plays in its Senior Philharmonic Orchestra, and is the concert master for the East Hampton High School Orchestra. Leo was the youngest violinist to perform with Metropolitan Youth Orchestra Suffolk Principal in the 2009 final concert at Carnegie Hall.

    Emily is a member of the Sag Harbor Community Band as well as the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra Suffolk Principal Orchestra.

    Chris, Benjamin, and Emmanuelle all attend Mannes Colleges as well as Pierson. Chris and Benjamin, who took up violin in kindergarten, play in the college’s Senior Philharmonic Orchestra. Emmanuelle focuses on classical guitar and composition. She received the Rising Star Award from the Playhouse Project master class in 2009.

    Grant has studied a variety of techniques and genres, most recently dedicating himself to the classical guitar, and Ella studied music at the Ellen Johansen Music Studio in East Hampton and recently competed in the Suffolk Piano Teachers Foundation’s annual competition.

    The suggested donation of $10 will go toward programs such as pediatric cancer research, bereavement counseling, scholarships, and a long-term investment in a childhood bereavement center on the East End. Tickets will be available at the door. Donations may be made at katyscourage.org.

    May 4 will bring the Sunset Over the Harbor party to benefit the Greater East Hampton Education Foundation, which helps to support programs — including minigrants and scholarships — for public school students from Montauk to Sagaponack.

The evening at East Hampton Point on Three Mile Harbor will feature hors d’oeuvres, dancing with D.J. Mike, paper and silent auctions, and more. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased by calling 605-5125.

    The East Hampton School District will take comments and answer questions about its $62.8 million budget for the 2012-13 school year at a hearing on Tuesday in the high school auditorium. The hearing will be held as part of the school board meeting at 7:30 p.m.

The proposed budget represents a decrease from this year’s budget, which is $64.4 million.

Wainscott School, with a 2012-13 proposed budget of $3.5 million, a 2.11-percent reduction from this year’s budget, will hold a public hearing on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

The statewide budget vote, along with school board elections, will be held on May 15.

    If you put Ben Faraone and Chandra Elmendorf out in the woods, alone and perhaps without even a knife, chances are good that they would survive and even thrive.

    For 11 years, the Sag Harbor residents have been taking classes at the Tracker School, a tracking, nature, and wilderness survival school in New Jersey. It was founded in 1978 by Tom Brown Jr., whose encounter at the age of 7 with an Apache elder named Stalking Wolf set him on a course of learning and passing on his teachings about nature, survival, and living close to the earth.

    His classes encompass not only outdoor survival and awareness skills, but include spiritual teachings drawn from Native American and other traditions, development of a life vision, and healing.

    Both Mr. Faraone and Ms. Elmendorf read halfway through one of Mr. Brown’s books before setting it down, certain that their next step must be to go to the Tracker School. Over the years, they have studied primitive cooking, ceremonies, medicinal plants, and more.

    “He teaches us the principles of survival; he gives us the tools to adapt to just about every situation,” Mr. Faraone said this week. “That’s not restricted to the wilderness, as we’ve come to learn.”

    Nonetheless, the two have done the “dirt time,” as they said, practicing the techniques of outdoor living and incorporating elemental practices into their own lives: tanning leather and making boots, making baskets using bamboo, willow tree cuttings, and other plant fibers, and heating their house all winter with a fire built in a woodstove using only a “bow drill” — carved wooden tools used to create friction and a spark. Mr. Faraone does flint knapping - creating tools from stone — and the two, who work together in their own organic gardening business, grow and preserve their own food. “We eat wild food regularly,” Ms. Elmendorf said. “All of us have ancestors that lived this way at one point.”

    Both have become certified instructors through Tom Brown’s Children of the Earth Foundation, a nonprofit created to offer youngsters “experiences that inspire excitement, adventure, creativity and a sense of awe,” awakening an awareness of the mysteries of the earth through teaching “the ancient art and science of tracking, awareness, and wilderness living skills” as the group’s Web site explains.

    They have begun spreading what they have learned to youngsters at an after-school program at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, and will offer their first weekend program for parents and children next month.

    During a two-day overnight workshop at Theodore Roosevelt County Park in Montauk, to be held on May 11 to 13 for families with children ages 7 and up, hands-on activities, games, and stories will help to introduce the fundamental skills of wilderness survival surrounding the basics of shelter, water, fire, and food, and will highlight the interdependence of all nature.

    Though participants will stay in tents at the park campsite, they will build a hut using found materials, learn how to find and purify water, build a fire with a bow drill, and forage for wild edible plants. Regardless of what is found, meals will be provided.

    Games will include Rabbit and Coyote, which stresses the importance of being well-hidden and the relationship of predator and prey, Chumash tag, played wearing blindfolds, which helps develop the use of other senses, and tracking games, through which players learn about camouflage and stalking — “all of which is useful for seeing animals in their natural state,” Ms. Elmendorf said.

    Children ages 7 and 8 must attend the workshop with a parent; those ages 9 and up may attend alone.  A third Children of the Earth Foundation teacher, and more if needed, will assist Mr. Faraone and Ms. Elmendorf.

    It will begin on the evening of May 11, a Friday, and last through Sunday at noon. The cost is $250 for one child; additional family members — parents or siblings — are $150 each. Those interested can register by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Additional information about the Children of the Earth Foundation can be found at its Web site, at www.cotef.org.

    “Our explorations have given us remarkable experiences that we will never forget,” Mr. Faraone said in a release. “We’ve made countless friction fires, boiled water with hot rocks, made baskets and burned and carved wooden bowls and spoons, made string, filtered water with a handful of materials found on the landscape. Our natural surroundings offer us so much abundance, and we have so much to give back. . . .”

    A quote from “Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children” sums it up, he said this week. “One of the greatest hindrances to children’s experience of nature is that today our children’s feet are removed from the earth, both literally and figuratively,” Mr. Brown writes. “Society in general has lost its connection to the earth, and hence has no conscious sensitivity to its mothering power. Once the connection is lost, people lose respect for the land, the trees, and the animals.”

    A triumvirate of teachers live in Sagaponack, and spend their time tirelessly helping children with special needs — whether physical or learning-related — by providing therapy that helps build not only muscles but self-confidence. And they do it all without saying a word.

    The trio — Mosely, Cookie, and Kirolak — are horses that have been specially trained to assist children with special needs, and the program they are part of, the Center for Therapeutic Riding of the East End, or CTREE, sees approximately two dozen kids come every week for a chance to ride, groom, and hug the horses.

    “The relationship that the kids develop with the horses is a partnership,” Karen Bocksel, the managing director of  CTREE, said last week. CTREE is held at the Wolffer Stables on Narrow Lane East behind the vineyards that stretch north from Montauk Highway.

    Ms. Bocksel has an adult son with special needs and it was because of him that she initially became interested in equine therapy.

    Ms. Bocksel is a certified PATH instructor — that’s the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International — and said her job is her passion.

    “My heart’s in there. It’s in the ring with the kids,” she said.

    The CTREE program has been growing since it was founded about four years ago. “The horses have been specially trained to tolerate loud noises, sudden movements, tight legs because of cerebral palsy. If a child is cognitive-impaired, they may not hold the reins correctly. The horses understand that it’s okay,” she said. “They’re very gentle.”

    Mosely has occasionally had as many as 20 kids surrounding him for a grooming session. “He’s happy to just stand there,” Ms. Bocksel said with a smile.

    Have there been noticeable changes in the children due to their experiences at CTREE? “One little boy said his first meaningful word while riding,” Ms. Bocksel recalled. “He said ‘Yellow’ and reached for something yellow, and his father burst into tears.”

    One autistic child was overwhelmed by the prospect of riding a horse when he first started. “Now he can stop and steer. It’s really amazing,” Ms. Bocksel said.

    Emma Walton Hamilton, an author who lives in Sag Harbor (and the reporter’s stepsister) has noticed huge changes in her 8-year-old daughter, Hope, who was born with cerebral palsy.

    “When she started two years ago, she had someone leading the horse, a volunteer on each side of her, and she still needed to hold onto my hand, with white knuckles,” Ms. Hamilton said. “Now she trots independently, does figure eights, all by herself. It’s been so incredibly valuable,” she said.

    “Physically it’s straightened her posture,” Ms. Hamilton said. “It’s strengthened her back and her legs. But what is the most important is what it has done for her confidence.”

    Ms. Hamilton’s belief in the importance of the CTREE program has led her to a place on its board of directors. “It’s given Hope a sense of community,” she acknowledged. “She doesn’t feel different anymore.”

    CTREE recently ran a program in conjunction with the Child Development Center of the Hamptons. “The kids came on Mondays from 12 to 2,” Ms. Bocksel said. “They had a full curriculum on how to take care of a horse, learning to ride, learning about different breeds of horses, everything,” she said.

    CTREE also offers private and semi-private lessons in the afternoons. In addition to Ms. Bocksel, there are two certified instructors.

    The program is nonprofit, and holds two fund-raisers a year. “Wolffer Stables has been extremely helpful,” she said. “They have given us a break on our board, and free office space,” she said. “My living room is very happy now.”

    The program has room to grow, but volunteers are needed. “We cannot exist without volunteers,” she said.

    Those who do volunteer do not need to be horse-friendly, at least not at first. They are trained and taken through an orientation. Anyone over 14 is invited to volunteer with CTREE, and community service credits are offered for high school and college students.

    The program also offers scholarships. “No one gets turned away,” Ms. Bocksel said. She looked out into the fields. “The atmosphere here is so spectacular,” she said. “It’s somehow restorative for the students.”

    The East Hampton School Board took a close look at the arts and athletic department budgets on Tuesday night as Larry Roberts, the director of unified arts, and Joe Vasile-Cozzo, the director of athletics, outlined cuts they have made to their proposed 2012-13 spending.

    One issue that raised eyebrows was a $17,000 food budget for the family and consumer science classes.

    “That’s for 200 students,” Mr. Roberts said. “At $88 per student, it breaks down to about $8.80 per student, per month.”

    “It still sounds really high,” said Jackie Lowey, a school board member.

    One of the two middle school plays performed every year was cut from the budget to bring down the costs in the drama department.

    However, a $4,000 lunch for senior citizens that usually precedes the high school play was left in the budget.

    “You will not convince me that the district should be paying for senior citizens to have lunch. We’re cutting a play so people can have lunch,” Ms. Lowey said.

    Laura Anker Grossman, the school board president, and George Aman, a board member, both expressed the importance of catering to the district’s older residents, but agreed that it didn’t have to cost that much.

    A possible solution was laid on the table:  have the family and consumer science students make lunch for the senior citizens, using some of the $17,000 food budget.

    Although there was a unanimous decision that the idea was a good one, it still needed to be discussed with the teachers in the department and was put on hold for now.

    Mr. Vasile-Cozzo, commonly known as Mr. Vas, outlined over $100,000 in cuts his department has made to next year’s athletic budget from the spending plan he had originally proposed for 2012-13. But when mileage paid back to coaches was examined, it was discovered that the district pays 51 cents per mile, when it is only required by law to pay 32 cents per mile.

    Lowering the rate would reduce the $8,000 in mileage reimbursement costs to coaches to approximately $6,000, and have ramifications throughout the district if it was universally applied.

    The board also scrutinized the pros and cons of purchasing of a $17,000 scoreboard to replace the broken one on the field.

    Mr. Vas suggested the possibility of sports camps in the summer to raise money. He said other districts have done this with great success.

    “It’s a 50-50 split,” he said. “The coaches don’t get paid, and half the money goes to lower the materials and supplies cost for that sport, the other half to the district. It could then go toward the scoreboard,” he said.

    The board asked if he would be able to institute this program before the summer, and Mr. Vas said he would look into it in further detail.

    Another budget workshop is scheduled for next Tuesday during the regular school board meeting at 7:30 p.m.

    Residents of the Montauk School District would see a 2.1-percent increase in their school taxes if the final budget proposal of $18.5 million presented this week is approved at the next school board meeting on April 17 and okayed by voters on May 15. Jack Perna, the district superintendent, gave out the figures at a board meeting on Tuesday.

    What that means is that an average household would pay an estimated $15 per $1,000 of assessed value of the property, for an estimated $75 increase in school taxes next year. But that number could be lower, Mr. Perna said, depending on the assessed value of the many new buildings in the hamlet.

    It’s been a relatively simple budget process this year. The board has been meeting weekly with Mr. Perna and Maura Mirras, the school treasurer, to comb through it and explain various line items to board members. The budget was tweaked here and there but didn’t change much since the initial proposal was handed out earlier this month.

    There were no big cuts or services slashed, and no new staff members were added. Mr. Perna said from the beginning that for this year, at least, the school will be able to come in under the state’s new 2-percent cap on tax levy increases. “Our core program has remained the same,” he said after the meeting.

    Mr. Perna said that although the tax bill will increase by 2.1 percent, he could have increased it up to 2.4 percent and still remained under the cap, because of various exemptions to the law.

    “As your administrator I was tempted to go to the 2.4 but we didn’t. We have a history here of being very conservative,” he said.

    Robert Lamparter, a retired art teacher who has been following the budget process, asked the board during the public comment period if teacher contracts were still being negotiated, and if so, how will that figure into the budget. He also said the regional cost to educate a student is about $19,000 and wondered why the Montauk School’s cost per pupil is about $34,000, a figure that Mr. Perna said later was fairly accurate.

    “It just seems like a lot of money per student,” Mr. Lamparter said. “I’m not looking to attack,” he added later. “People ask me what’s going on, and I want to be able to explain it to them.”

    Diane Hausman, the board president, said that most of the expenses are out of the board’s control.

    Traditionally, smaller schools incur higher costs, Mr. Perna said.

    When it comes to teacher contract negotiations, which are ongoing, the superintendent said by phone yesterday that an estimated portion of the expected salary increase is already added to the budget. If the costs go over what’s budgeted, he would try to cover it from other areas that have come in under budget. But if the salaries did go over, and the budget needed to be changed, a special referendum would have to be held, with the public voting on whether to approve the additional costs.

    A hearing on the budget proposal will be held on May 2 at 6 p.m. in the school. The budget vote will take place on May 15 from 2 to 8 p.m. in the school gym.

EAST HAMPTON HIGH SCHOOL

 Parent-teacher conferences are now underway at East Hampton High School.

On Wednesday, Adam Fine, the principal, will host his monthly parent breakfast. It begins at 8 a.m. in the high school's library. Parents are encouraged to take brown-bag breakfasts.

Finally, two theatrical events are in the works. The drama club has scheduled a staged reading of "Spoon River Anthology" for Dec. 10 and 11 and selected a musical, "Once Upon a Mattress," for the spring.

EAST HAMPTON MIDDLE SCHOOL

Picture retakes for students at the East Hampton Middle School are being snapped later today.

Mark your calendars. A PTA meeting and principal's breakfast is planned for next Thursday at 9:30 a.m. A panel of middle school guidance, psychology, and social work staff members will discuss their role in helping kids learn about healthy behaviors. They will also discuss coping strategies when students make poor choices.

Middle school students raised $386 from a recent Halloween costume fund-raiser. The money will help provide Thanksgiving dinners for local families in need. Students will assemble the food baskets the day before Thanksgiving break.

JOHN MARSHALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Students at the John M. Marshall School honored local veterans with songs and special presentations at an all-school meeting on Friday.

Parents of elementary students have been advised to check their child's backpack tomorrow, when report cards will be sent home. Parent-teacher conferences are planned for Tuesday and Nov. 25.

All this month, the activities club is asking that students take in canned goods to help with a forthcoming food drive.

Meanwhile, students are on the hunt for nutrition labels, from items such as granola bars, cereal, frozen pizza, and more. Students will use them during their science lab, as part of Healthy Food for Life, an in-school nutrition program. Parents, who are also welcome to participate, can contact Ginny Reale at the Wellness Foundation, which sponsors the program, for more information.

The fifth grade also took a field trip to the Grace Estate in Northwest Woods on Tuesday for a forest investigation. And this week and next, the first grade will take turns visiting the East Hampton Library.

Lastly, during Native American month, the school's art club is examining the woodland-style art of Norval Morriseau, also known as Copper Thunderbird, a Canadian artist.

BRIDGEHAMPTON SCHOOL

On Friday, students at the Bridgehampton School honored veterans during a special assembly, which featured the school band and several special guests.

Parent-teacher conference day for students in prekindergarten through fifth grade is Nov. 25. As such, prekindergartners will be dismissed at 11 a.m., with other grades dismissed at 11:15 a.m. First quarter report cards will be provided during individual student conferences.

Finally, the school is looking for community members to serve on its wellness and budget advisory committees. Those interested should send a letter to Tammy Cavanaugh, the district clerk, via e-mail, [email protected]. The deadline is Nov. 25.

HAYGROUND SCHOOL

Last week, the Hayground School in Bridgehampton hosted an evening of math, which was facilitated by the school's math consultant, faculty, and students. Parents explored Hayground's approach to math, which utilizes hands-on activities and small-group discussion.

Students in Marybeth Pacilio's class recently read a book called "The Matchbox Diary." The story features a little girl who, while visiting her great-grandfather, discovers a set of matchboxes, with each one containing a memento and a story related to his boyhood journey from Italy to America. The story has inspired a class-wide book project, with each student creating a memoir from cherished objects and images.

Spring Break Camp

    East Hampton Town is offering a free spring break recreation program for children in kindergarten through sixth grade from Tuesday through Friday, April 13. The sessions, which run from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. each day, will be held at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton and at the Montauk School.

    Registration can be done in advance at the East Hampton Town Parks and Recreation Department or at the Montauk Playhouse. Children can also be registered at John M. Marshall or the Montauk School on Tuesday.

Hispanic Leadership

    Three East Hampton High School seniors — Maryolin Perez, Milton Farez, and Deyvis Avila — were awarded scholarships last weekend at the Angelo del Toro Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute in Albany. Of the 200 students who applied, 25 were granted scholarships, and were chosen by essays and a mock assembly.

    The students also had an opportunity to speak to Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., the local representative, and Assemblyman Phillip Ramos, who chairs the yearly event.

    For parents who are out of ideas for things to do with their young children, there’s a new site in town. Giggles ’n’ Grit, started by a trio of mothers, offers hyper-local ideas to get the ball rolling and creative juices flowing.

    “We want to offer inspiring things to do,” said Kat O’Neill, who lives in East Hampton with her husband and 5-year-old son. The Web site, which is divided into categories of activities like “Fun ’n’ Free” and “Out ’n’ About,” showcases things to do with children that parents might not think up on their own. Many of them have to do with the outdoors, but there are plenty of indoor activities as well.

    Some of the choices include searching for a snowy owl or blue salamander, joining a Lego play group, swabbing different locations inside the house and then letting the resulting bacteria grow in a petri dish, hatching a “sea monster,” cleaning up Main Beach, and various art projects. There are lists worth their weight in gold to moms and dads: child-friendly restaurants, museums, parks, and classes in East Hampton and beyond.

    There are also giggles — like the disturbing origins of nursery rhymes, lifted from Cracked.com — and grit, like the “plastic dilemma,” which can spark a lively discussion among parents.

    “What started as a creative alternative to the dreaded play date has evolved into a library of content that we hope will inspire parents to do more unique things with their children, to really explore the world around them,” Ms. O’Neill said.

    Initially, the group was going to be private, “more like a club, but that was too exclusive.” Instead, “it has created a chance for moms and dads to get together with the kids and socialize. We always try to incorporate some learning into the fun,” she said. “Laugh more, learn more.”

    About 20 parents form the core group, but Ms. O’Neill, who, with Amanda Switzer manages the site, hopes that more will come aboard. The kids range in age from about 2 to 7, she added.

    New content is being added all the time, and the group is open to new ideas, too. “We want to have people join who want to have fun,” Ms. O’Neill said.

    Those with adventurous spirits and young explorers in tow can find the site at gigglesngrit.com.