Education

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

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.