Education

Before the start of the school year, the Sagaponack organization Supplies for Success announced it had donated 20,000 backpacks filled with new school supplies to local children whose families cannot afford them.

Since Mindy Richardson established the organization in 2002, Supplies for Success has helped 135,000 underserved local children. And since March 5, 2020, when Ms. Richardson's son Eric died in a ski accident, the organization has responded to the pandemic in his honor. 

Motivated by the patterns of tobacco use among their peers, a student group called Breathe In Change is renewing its efforts to educate other students about the dangers of tobacco use — including cigarettes in addition to e-cigarettes, according to the students.

Two school districts here have brought independent investigators on board to look into sensitive incidents and school residency.

The East Hampton School District will be providing meals to remote and hybrid students who are on the federal free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch programs. The district will also be providing meals to Springs School students in the same categories.

The winners of the East Hampton Town Anti-Bias Task Force's bumper sticker design contest were announced this week.

Madeline Grabb, the Bridgehampton School's 2020 valedictorian, is one of 200 people chosen to compete in a research competition known as the World Food Prize. Her gap-year project focuses on ideas for fighting malnutrition in Pakistan, where 68 percent of the population suffers from anemia.

With school back in session, online homework help is being made more available to library patrons across the East End. The sessions, hosted by Brainfuse, an online tutoring provider, offer one-on-one help and test prep in a wide range of subjects for students in kindergarten through 12th grade on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Trivia time for teens, circle time for toddlers, and more.

Tim Frazier, the recently retired Southampton Intermediate School principal and the current vice president of the Springs School Board, has stepped in as interim director of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center.

New York State's school Covid-19 reporting system is now online. The publicly accessible website allows visitors to look up school districts by name or address.

The system can be accessed at schoolcovidreportcard.health.ny.gov. As of Monday morning, none of the South Fork school districts, from Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor through Montauk, had any cases to report.

Two six-week programs for young thespians through Bay Street Theater will begin on Sept. 26 outdoors on the grounds of the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum.

Parents and children can expect the experience of riding the school bus to be different in light of Covid-19 -- if, that is, they take the bus at all.

Most South Fork school districts are reporting that bus ridership will be down as more parents choose to drive their children to school themselves. And unlike in the past, when every child who qualified for transportation was automatically assigned a place on a school bus, most districts asked families to specifically opt in to transportation this year.