Education

The Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center has become one of the first educational institutions here to announce a pause on in-person attendance following the holiday break, with planned closures Monday and Tuesday.

Now that holiday breaks are almost over, Project Most is back in action with classes and events. A beginner roller-skating class for kids ages 5 to 9 will be on Monday at 3:45 p.m., taught by Samantha Duane, a former professional roller derby skater. On Fridays in January, Ms. Duane will teach an ongoing skating class, also at 3:45.

Sydney Salamy, a 2018 graduate of East Hampton High School with a tradition of spearheading charitable endeavors, is continuing her good works. During her junior year of high school, she started a local chapter of Play It Forward, a charity that supplies sports equipment to families in need. Now Ms. Salamy is tackling bone marrow donations.

Gov. Kathy Hochul urged parents to have their children vaccinated against Covid-19 while schools are closed this week, noting a rise in pediatric hospitalizations as the infection rates across the state climb ever higher, and for those who are ready, there's a pediatric vaccine clinic planned at the Children's Museum of the East End next week.

The East Hampton Library is encouraging high school students to take on its 2022 winter challenge, which runs from Jan. 3 to Feb. 19.

A routine annual review of the Bridgehampton School District’s 2020-21 finances by an outside auditor was sparkling, save for a handful of small issues, one of which was the district’s accidental allocation of more scholarship money for students than it had available from donors for that purpose.

Worrisome cracks in the brickwork, wall-joint separation, and rusting lintels are just some of the issues the Sag Harbor School District is planning to tackle with a large-scale masonry repair project expected to cost nearly $1 million.

A holiday break camp at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton will offer something for kids 3 1/2 to 5 to do from 9:30 a.m. to noon Monday through next Thursday. Each day there’s a different focus.

On an average day at the Montauk School, it’s normal for around 13 or 14 students to be absent, amounting to 4 percent of the school’s enrollment of 328. On Friday, its absences jumped to 23 percent — about 75 children — after a social media post threatening violence went viral and whipped families into a frenzy across the nation.

Police departments here and across Long Island are on heightened alert at schools, following social media posts that threatened violence today, Friday. Those threats have now been deemed non-credible.

“It’s fun to have buddies,” Keira Huerta said, “because you don’t have to be alone.”

Keira, a first grader at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, summed it up perfectly as one of about a dozen students who told the East Hampton School Board last week that they really like their buddy program, which pairs fourth graders with first graders for educational activities and playtime.

The Hampton Library’s popular gingerbread cookie-decorating program happens on Saturday. Kids and their families can also choose from lots of other activities coming up.