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.

    Working with Raymond Fell, a search consultant with the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, the East Hampton School Board has narrowed its choices for the the next school superintendent to just three candidates. They are the interim superintendent, Richard Burns, Sue Naeve, who co-chairs the district’s citizens advisory committee, and Robert Tymann, an assistant superintendent in the Lindenhurst district.

    Initially, Mr. Fell looked at over a dozen candidates. But by the time the interviews with the East Hampton School Board rolled around last weekend, he had narrowed the field to six. One applicants dropped out before the interviews, and the board chose the finalists from the remaining five.

    Mr. Fell said yesterday that he gathered community opinion at a forum in January to help him focus on the qualifications best suited to East Hampton. “Of course they need to be professionally qualified,” he said, “but I also took into consideration how they would fit in.”

    “I think it’s been an excellent process,” Laura Anker Grossman, the school board president, said yesterday.

    “The candidates are very interesting in very different ways,” she said, refusing to say more. She added that she did not want to prejudice the interviews still to be conducted by a committee comprising teachers, PTA members, and residents on April 16. The 24-person committee will split into three groups to interview the  candidates in rotation. “This will give the board additional information about the candidates, which will help them with their decision,” Mr. Fell said.

    Mr. Burns, who has been with the school district since 1990, was the director of pupil personnel services prior to becoming interim superintendent. His five children have all gone to East Hampton and Springs schools. In January, when the forum was held, many of the people who attended came to speak in favor of Mr. Burns.

    Dr. Naeve came to East Hampton from Southern California, where she was a teacher, an assistant principal, and, for 10 years, assistant superintendent in the San Gabriel School District. She has been active on the citizens advisory committee since its formation in early 2011, and was part of the triumvirate, with Ira Bezzoza and Bill Grathwohl, who recently examined possible consolidation solutions.

    Mr. Tymann has a background in English as a second language and has worked in New York City and Levittown as an educator, principal, and assistant principal. The Lindenhurst district, where he is now assistant superintendent, has almost 7,000 students.

    The district is considering a salary of approximately $175,000 to $190,000 a year for the job, well below the reported $265,000 a year that the previous superintendent, Raymond Gualtieri, was earning before he left in July.

    A decision could be reached as early as April 17, although Dr. Grossman said the end of the month was more likely. “We really worked together on this, not just as a school board, but as a community,” she said.

    The East Hampton School Board slogged through over three hours of a budget workshop on Tuesday night in anticipation of coming up with a hard tax levy number that the state is expecting from all schools in New York by today.

    “We’re not going to pierce the cap,” Laura Anker Grossman, the school board president, said. “We feel that we can stay within the levy and have a curriculum that supports our children.”

    She was referring to exceeding the 2-percent cap on tax levy increases. To exceed that cap requires approval by 60 percent of district voters, an 11th-hour move to which some school districts may have to resort.

    Isabel Madison, the district’s business administrator, took the board and audience through the equations, which added up to a tax levy amount for East Hampton residents of $44.88 million for a proposed 2012-13 budget of $63.22 million. It was still too early to unravel the tax rate per $100.

    The tax levy increase, on paper, shows as 4.431 percent, but this is allowed under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s cap, since there are many exemptions to the law, including a district’s debt service and capital construction projects, along with building and bus leases, if they apply.

    East Hampton’s debt service is $6.54 million per year.

    Charles Soriano, the assistant superintendent, presented a line-by-line budget pertaining to his office. It showed overall a decrease from $1.2 million in 2008-9 to $917,781.38 for 2012-13.

    Approximately $90,000 was saved by moving programs traditionally held at the Ross School back to the new art wing of East Hampton High School. Dr. Soriano told the board that the savings would be moved into staff development.

    “The state provides the standards to follow,” he said. “But standards are not curricula. Teachers should write curricula based on their experiences, so it’s personal to this school, to this area, and it means something to the students. That’s the gold standard for how it should be done,” he said.

    The board, and some audience members, said that the additional $90,000 for staff development was a good idea. One audience member said she didn’t think it was enough.

    “You’re right,” Dr. Soriano said. “In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t, but I’ve just increased it by almost $100,000, so I’m elated.”

    With that exception, along with new textbooks that are necessary in the elementary and middle schools, the board looked at ways to cut, including purchasing its celebratory sheet cakes for less that $165, and 1,000 lanyards for identification badges for under $1,000.

    “I know it’s just nickels and dimes,” said Jackie Lowey, a board member. “But there’s a cultural shift that has to happen in this district.”

    Patricia Hope, another board member, agreed. “We want to be able to say to the community that we are cutting everything we can,” she said, adding incredulously, “A thousand dollars for string?”

 Puppet Programs

    The Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor is offering up a tulip-y tale on Saturday: “The Adventures of Princess Spring Blossom.” Michelle Beshaw, a Brooklyn puppeteer, brings the story, which is about the adventures of the denizens of Tulip Forest during a spring festival. Performances are at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and tickets cost $10, $9 for grandparents and members, and $5 for children under 3.

    The theater also offers puppet play groups on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 9:30 a.m., when children under 3 (and their grown-ups) can stop in for songs, games, and a Minkie the Monkey puppet show. The cost is $15 for members, $25 for drop-ins.

    A “messy and fun” Tot Art program filled with projects for the 2-to-4-year-old set happens on Friday mornings at 10:30.

Hats Off to Dr. Seuss

    The East Hampton Library will celebrate spring today at 4 p.m., when those 4 and older can make springtime scenes using colorful tissue paper for a collage.

    Celebrating Dr. Seuss is de rigueur in March (his birthday was on Friday), and the library will honor Theodor Geisel with a special “Hats Off to You” story time on Saturday from 10:45 to 11:15 a.m. Listeners 3 and up have been invited to wear their favorite hats and make a craft.

Multicultural Festival

    Visitors will be transported around the world at tomorrow’s multicultural festival at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor from 6 to 9 p.m. They can feast on international specialties while dancing to the music of various countries.

    The suggested donation for admission is $5, which goes toward the gardens at the schools in Sag Harbor and also to a nonprofit international organization called charity: water, which focuses on providing safe drinking water to people in developing nations. For those who want to recreate the experience without the crowd, a multicultural cookbook will be available for purchase.

Idol Hands

    Hamptons Idol is returning for its sixth year on March 17. The Southampton Youth Bureau will hold this singing and dancing competition from 7:30 to 11 p.m. that day. The price of stardom, or rather watching it, is $10 plus a nonperishable food item. For additional information, the Youth Bureau can be reached at 702-2425. Its Web site is southamptontownny.gov/youthbureau.

    The Springs School Board is considering eliminating a special education teacher in the 2012-13 school year as part of its efforts to bring the district budget in line with the state’s new 2-percent cap on property tax levy increases.

    All public schools in the state were waiting on the final protocol to come from Albany regarding the cap. March 1 was to be the deadline for boards across the state to submit their hard numbers for the property tax levy calculation, based on equations to be sent from the governor’s office, but as of the night before, no one had yet heard a gubernatorial peep.

    Last year’s approved budget was $24.8 million, but Springs has yet to release a hard number for 2012-13.

    At a budget workshop on Feb. 29, Kathee Burke Gonzalez, the school board president, introduced Colleen Card, the school’s business administrator, to discuss the high school tuition rates, and some other salient points.

    “The rules of engagement have changed,” Ms. Burke Gonzalez said. She called the decisions to be made this year “critical.”

    Last year, Springs paid $25,677 per high school student to the East Hampton school district. This year, per the tuition contract signed last year, the price rises to $27,345 per student, more than 6 percent. This year there were 273 Springs students at the high school, but there are 8 fewer expected in the 2012-13 school year. Because of increased tuition costs, however, the tuition amount due to East Hampton will climb from $7.01 million to $7.24 million.

    The tuition for students with disabilities at the high school has jumped from $55,292 per student to $63,114. There are six Springs students with disabilities at the high school this year, and two more are expected to join them next year. The Springs principal, Eric Casale, said that he had reviewed the school’s special education programs and “to not only meet their needs but also be fiscally responsible,” the decision has been made to subtract one special education educator from next year, “either by excessing or through retirement,” he said.

    The “real cost” of a step one teacher was also explored. Although the teacher’s salary would come in at $54,000, the district is also responsible for paying 11.84 percent of that salary into the teachers retirement fund, and an additional 18.5 percent of the salary into the New York State employees retirement system. Health insurance can run from $9,000 to $21,000, depending on whether the teacher is single or has a family, and Social Security and Medicare payments are another 7.65 percent. A teacher hired at a salary of $54,000 costs the district $84,599, Ms. Card explained.

    In a statement, Nancy Olson and Amy Turner, two Springs teachers and co-presidents of the Springs Teachers Association, commended the board on holding the community forum. “We are aware that the recent tax cap legislation and economic crises present you with very difficult choices this budget season,” Ms. Olson read. “As we have stated in a recent press release, the S.T.A. is committed to doing its part to help preserve the valuable programs that benefit kids here at Springs School.”

    The letter suggested that the board reconsider its new administrative model and forgo adding an assistant principal.

    “Although we recognize the advantages of adding an assistant principal, under our financial circumstances, we believe it would be preferable to apply that money to the preservation of programs for students and distribute these administrative duties to existing staff,” Ms. Olson read.

    An earlier letter from the S.T.A. stated, “We are pleased to say that, although there is still much to be worked out, the S.T.A. and the district have a tentative agreement that calls for salary freezes and benefit concessions totaling over half a million dollars in savings to the district.” As of the meeting on Feb. 29, though, the teachers are still receiving their “step” increases annually, according to Michael Hartner, the school superintendent.

    “This community cannot afford the ever-increasing taxes,” Carol Buda, a retired teacher and Springs resident, said during the public comment period. “It is literally forcing some people out of their homes. I don’t want to see the school fall apart,” she added, “but there are 30 teachers here making $100,000-plus. If a teacher is married to another teacher, or a policeman, I think that puts them in Obama’s 1 percent.”

    Others in the audience echoed the sentiment and the school’s motto — “Springs School: Where Children Come First” — and were upset that possible cuts discussed at the budget meetings and the community forum held on Feb. 11 seemed to focus on eliminating school programs.

    “If you slash and burn this year, what are you going to do next year?” Ms. Buda asked.

    Rameshwar Das pointed to the fact that the school tax in Springs is four times that of Amagansett.

    Kristy LaMonda, a Springs teacher and resident, said her father “grew up steps from this school, the youngest of 12 kids who all went here.”

    “I feel like I’m constantly defending this school,” she said. “It’s not that we [the district] are doing anything irresponsible with the money we’re given. We have no oceanfront property, we have no business district.” What Springs does have, as several speakers pointed out, is a 27-percent population jump in the past four years.

    “There’s a sense of entitlement in this community,” said Dawn Flagg, a Springs resident. “Some people have been out of a job for years. Nothing is free. When I wanted my kids to go to preschool, I paid for it.”

    “If you have a job and you have security, that’s something to be grateful for, instead of looking for the next green leaf from a tree that isn’t there.”