Education

The Sagaponack School’s proposed $1.89-million spending plan for the 2023-24 school year “is a pretty straightforward, easy budget,” the district superintendent, Jay Finello, said this week. “It’s very close to this year’s, with a modest increase, without any major changes at all.”

Family members, schoolmates, and administrators looked on as Leslie Samuel, a Bridgehampton senior who has had an outstanding track career under East Hampton High’s aegis, signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Hartford, where she will run and study nursing.

It is fair to say the Wainscott School District’s financial situation has reached crisis level: A budget with a 49.27-percent jump in overall spending — carrying a tax-levy increase of more than 95 percent — is on the table for the 2023-24 school year.

The Bridgehampton School District’s proposed budget ensures “the best possible program for our students while being mindful of our responsibility to the taxpayers to be fiscally accountable,” said Mary T. Kelly, the superintendent, in discussing the $21.74 million spending plan that voters will see on the May 16 ballot for the next school year.

In East Hampton's Methods in Research program, students conduct high-level scientific experiments and analyses that almost universally address — and often propose solutions to — problems the planet is experiencing, such as climate change, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, pollution, and decreasing biodiversity.

Saturday’s Our Fabulous Variety Show performance will be followed at 7 p.m. by Drag Bingo and Game Night, hosted by RaffaShow and friends as a fund-raiser for the O.F.V.S. Crew’s upcoming performance at Walt Disney World in June. Plus: Arbor Day celebration, theatrical performances, movies, and more for kids and teens.

In a situation that has been brewing since 2016, this year is the first time the Montauk School District is putting an over-the-tax-cap budget proposal on the ballot: a $22.73 million spending plan that maintains all current programs and services but asks the taxpayers to support a tax-levy increase of 18.56 percent for the 2023-24 school year.

The Sag Harbor School Board voted on April 19 to adopt a $48.06 million budget plan for the 2023-24 school year, though the plan — with a tax-cap-compliant 1.88-percent increase built in — is not expected to be the hottest item on the May 16 ballot.

The Sag Harbor School District has scheduled a public forum "addressing the proposed acquisition" of five wooded properties on Marsden Street for Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Pierson Middle and High School auditorium.

Advocacy organizations and physicians are strongly encouraging families of children with autism to get genetic testing — not just in April, which is Autism Awareness Month, but as a standard practice in this branch of medicine, to gain insight into the spectrum of ways autism impacts kids. “Knowledge is power,” said Dr. Kolevzon, the clinical director of the Seaver Autism Center, who sees at least one South Fork family, the Egerton-Warburtons of Water Mill, in his practice.

Tuesday will be an exciting day for the 43 students enrolled in East Hampton High School’s Methods in Research science program. They will welcome parents, friends, and community members to the school’s research symposium, the first to be held since the Covid-19 pandemic paused most activities, where they will display and discuss their projects and results.

“We are both happy and fortunate to be under the tax cap this year,” J.P. Foster, the school board president, said Wednesday morning. “With rising costs across the board, it is certainly a challenge.”

Book clubs for kids and teens will discuss graphic novels and other works. Plus: Garden exploration at Amber Waves, a teen clothing swap in Montauk, movies at libraries and Sag cinema, and Earth Day events galore.

Monday’s deadline for school board candidates to file their petitions has come and gone. Just two local school districts, East Hampton and Wainscott, will have contested races.

The Springs School Board has an uphill mountain to climb as it seeks support from the community for an over-the-tax-cap budget plan that will need a supermajority of at least 60-percent voter approval to pass.

Erik Kelt, a Shelter Island native who has been a principal in New Orleans, is coming home to the East End take on that role in Springs starting in July.

A new principal and a new honor for the Bridgehampton School.

The coming week brings movie madness for kids and teens, from classic films to newer box office hits, along with plenty of other activities to learn and play.

The Springs School District’s over-the-tax-cap budget proposal for the 2023-24 school year continues to take shape as Tuesday’s state-imposed deadline looms. Schools must finalize their budgets by then.

East Hampton Town police spent Tuesday morning investigating an anonymous email threat received overnight by multiple school districts and ultimately deemed it “noncredible.”

Michael Miller, who has been principal of the Bridgehampton School since 2018, is leaving the district to take the superintendent and principal position in the East Quogue School District as of July 1, and on Thursday the district announced that the assistant principal, Michael Cox, will take over from Mr. Miller.

The South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton has a variety of activities lined up for kids of all ages, just in time for school vacation next week, and there's a lot more going on, too.

An unprecedented influx of 18 new students arrived this year in the Wainscott Common School District, a tiny school that educates kids in kindergarten through third grade and pays tuition to send older children to nearby districts. The influx led to sharply rising tuition costs and left the district facing an anticipated budget deficit of about $902,000 this year, as well as a projected increase in next year’s budget of about 43 percent.

East Hampton Town police spent Tuesday morning investigating anonymous email threats received overnight by multiple school districts, including Springs, Amagansett, and Wainscott, and ultimately deemed them "non credible."

The Sag Harbor School Board voted 5-to-0 to formally add a $6 million bond referendum onto the May 16 budget ballot for the potential purchase of five properties on Marsden Street.

The Amagansett School Board voted Tuesday to put a $13.16 million budget on the ballot in May, including a tax-levy increase that complies with New York State rules.

The curtain rises Thursday on the Pierson High School theater department’s production of “Cinderella” by Rodgers and Hammerstein. In this musical, audiences can expect “a new take on the classic story full of charm, humor, and magic, with an incredible student cast,” its director, Bethany Dellapolla, said.

Since New York State’s cap on tax-levy increases was enacted in 2012, the Springs School District has never attempted to pass an over-the-cap budget. That’s about to change.

The curtain rises Thursday on the Pierson High School theater department's production of "Cinderella" by Rodgers and Hammerstein. In this musical, audiences can expect "a new take on the classic story full of charm, humor, and magic, with an incredible student cast," its director, Bethany Dellapolla, said.

Our Fabulous Variety Show’s next family-friendly event is “Neverlanded,” an original take on the classic tale of Peter Pan, featuring students in Project Most’s performing arts classes. Plus: movies, book clubs, dance classes, pizza parties, and more for kids and teens.