Education

This week, the cafeteria at East Hampton High School was buzzing with innovation, ingenuity, and imagination, as Camp Invention took over, welcoming kids from kindergarten through fifth grade to develop their STEM skills through hands-on projects and problem-solving activities. 

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, now showing the musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” will host a panel discussion, “Dear Social Media: The Search for Identity, Connection, and Belonging,” on Friday at 5 p.m.

Love of the Game — Bring It, this year’s Hoops 4 Hope summer benefit, will be held on Saturday from 3 to 7 p.m. in Springs.

They’re called REEB, which stands for Real East End Brass, but this eight-piece ensemble is more than a New Orleans-style brass band. They’re also all real East End teachers, retired and current.

Set against the picture-perfect backdrop of ocean and sky at Ditch Plain Beach in Montauk is a story of selfless devotion to those with special needs and a growing community and spirit of compassion in action. 

St. Michael’s Housing in Amagansett will soon be home to a new East End day habilitation program that will offer skill-building, community engagement, vocational support, and health and wellness activities for adults with developmental disabilities. 

Aside from the more than three dozen authors set to attend the East Hampton Library’s Children’s Fair on Sunday from 2 to 5:30 at Herrick Park in East Hampton, the afternoon will feature games, carnival rides, and bouncy houses, along with crafts and performers, all for free. 

The Sag Harbor Fire Department Carnival happens nightly through Saturday. The Clamshell Foundation hosts its sand castle contest Saturday and there's also a life-sized inflatable whale, music and storytelling at Guild Hall, and a Raptor Day in Bridgehampton are on tap for kids this week.

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, Matthew’s Garden at the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum was buzzing with hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and volunteers — including some high school interns — all working together for the local environment.

After 47 years behind the wheel, a much-loved Amagansett school bus driver, Russell Schaefer, has retired, leaving a void that won’t easily be filled.

The nonprofit Camp SoulGrow is celebrating 12 years of workshops for kids with a party for adults and then a week of fun for kids all over Montauk.

The 34th annual East Hampton Town Junior Lifeguarding tournament, the culmination of the town program that teaches ocean safety and lifesaving techniques to kids ages 9 to 15, will take place at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

It was Christmas in summertime at the Presbyterian Church in East Hampton, where for the last few weeks South Fork Performing Arts’ junior cast has been rehearsing the musical “Elf Jr.” The group of actors, ages 6 to 14, will bring the show to life at Guild Hall on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Wednesday at 1 p.m.

Free, one-on-one support for high school students working on their college application essays will be offered at the Amagansett Library Friday from 1 to 3 p.m., and again on Aug. 21 and Sept. 19, also from 1 to 3.

Teenagers are working the land in a summer internship program with Share the Harvest Farm and Pitch Your Peers Teen, a youth-led philanthropic and service organization that introduces students to local nonprofits, meaningful volunteer opportunities, and charitable funding.

For young people this week, there’s CMEE’s Family Fair, teen tickets for Ms. Lauryn Hill at the Clubhouse, movies inside and out, a nature and art program in Water Mill, and the Story Pirates at Guild Hall.

The Long Island Basketball Foundation will honor the legendary local basketball coach Ed Petrie on Saturday in Wainscott while also raising money for the Ed Petrie Legacy Scholarship.

East Hampton could be home to a new day program for people with developmental disabilities. On Tuesday, Rise Life Services and People’s Arc of Suffolk will host an open house at East Hampton High School to introduce the concept, which would offer skill-building, community engagement, vocational support, and health and wellness activities.

Just five days after the class of 2026 graduated, the East Hampton School Board was already looking ahead. At its first meeting of the new school year on July 1, the board took up several key items, including extending the contract of Adam Fine, the superintendent, through 2031.

They were hard-working, kind team players with an impressive array of talents. Anyone looking to restore their faith in our future would have found great comfort at the East Hampton High School graduation on June 26, when 226 Bonackers flipped the tassels on their caps from right to left and officially became alumni.

David Cataletto’s passions for education, history, and the environment merge in “Kings of the Coast,” set on the East End in the 1600s and telling a tale of Indigenous tribes and Dutch and English settlers struggling to control the land. 

This month, The Star's teen book columnist considers three novels that she's long had on her to-be-read list: "Little Women," "The Song of Achilles," and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow."

“Pomp and Circumstance” will be playing all over town this weekend, with the class of 2026 at both Pierson and East Hampton High Schools receiving their diplomas.

At its summer benefit on Sunday at Moby’s restaurant, Project Most will honor the late Joe O’Connell, an early supporter whose donation helped the nonprofit launch its after-school program at the Springs School 20 years ago. 

The football field at East Hampton High School has a new flagpole, installed in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary, thanks to the generosity of Everit Albert Herter Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 550.

Jeff Nichols, the superintendent of the Sag Harbor School District, spent most of a special meeting of the school board Wednesday offering an explanation and timeline of the school’s actions the day that Cesar Adrian Albarracin Guncay, a sixth grader, died in a rafting accident.

The John M. Marshall Elementary School unveiled its brand-new $1.4 million playground on June 4. Designed by the architect Michael Guido with input from students, parents, and staff, the purple-and-aqua structure is handicapped-accessible, featuring a bridge that accommodates wheelchairs.

More than 90 East Hampton High School seniors were awarded roughly $350,000 on June 4 as part of the school’s local scholarship program, with prizes from every organization imaginable — the fire departments, teachers’ associations, Police Benevolent Association, Lions Club, American Legion, Kiwanis Club, Ladies Village Improvement Society, and local businesses. 

Macarons, chocolate chip cookies, oil changes, and tire repairs — East Hampton High School’s culinary and automotive students have mastered a wide range of skills over the last two years and this week they were part of the second annual graduation for these programs, a celebration of 13 students’ success.

Teachers who rely on the Long Island Rail Road to get to East Hampton for work got an unpleasant surprise last week — a notice that the M.T.A. Police will be closing most of the parking lot at the Westhampton train station from Saturday through June 21 for the U.S. Open Golf Championship at Shinnecock.