Education

Cullen and Danowski, an accounting firm that reviews finances for many school districts in New York State, has given the Sag Harbor School District the highest possible rating — called an "unmodified opinion" — on its audit of last year's operations.

With pandemic restrictions easing up for schools, students have begun taking field trips once again. For Springs School kids, that meant trips to Louse Point and Landing Lane for A Day in the Life of the Peconic Estuary on Oct. 22 with the Peconic Estuary Partnership. The annual outing returned after a Covid-19 hiatus last year. Students took part in various water quality testing activities. They measured environmental data such as wind speed and categorized marine life they found in the shallows.

Having previously raised questions over changes to a nearly $23 million renovation and expansion project, the Springs School Board heard some good news on Tuesday night.

A project at least two years in the works, further delayed by Covid-19, the brand-new library media center has finally come to fruition.

For more than 30 years, children at the Sag Harbor Elementary School have started their days with "morning program" — a spirited schoolwide assembly featuring music, birthday shout-outs, presentations, and news of their peers' achievements. The daily tradition fell by the wayside during the pandemic, but it has now returned in a modified format.

Halloween is two days away. From traditional trick-or-treating to library events and festivals, kids and teens have plenty of fun things to do.

The Springs School Board has moved its monthly meetings and work sessions from Monday nights to Tuesday nights. The first meeting reflecting the change will be this week.

Russell Huber, who has refereed scholastic athletic contests in New York State since 1969, has always preferred that the players, not he, get the attention. But at the Springs School on Sept. 27, it was the other way around.

East Hampton High School's athletics program has been recognized by the Aspen Institute's Reimagining School Sports Initiative as the winner of the small suburban schools category. The award comes with a $20,000 grant, the district announced.

In a move expected to save money and solve problems created by construction delays, the East Hampton School District this week reached a new lease agreement with the owners of the property at 41 Route 114, where the district has had its bus depot for more than a decade.

Fire trucks, payloaders, ambulances, dump trucks, tractors. These will be some of the stars of Big Truck Day at the Children's Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton on Saturday.

The Springs and Amagansett School Districts have earned good grades on their finances from the EFPR Group, an independent auditing firm that evaluated both over the summer.

It's happening now in local public schools: Dismayed by their long eastbound commutes and other issues, teachers and other key employees have been resigning from their jobs, leaving schools strapped for the help they need to cover classes and keep things running smoothly.

The 80 children in fourth grade at the Springs School will once again write, produce, and perform the annual opera, which was canceled last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A student who brought a BB gun to East Hampton High School on Thursday was "immediately removed" from campus by administrators and a town police resource officer.

Of the 281 cases of Covid-19 reported by East End public schools from the start of the school year through Oct. 8, about 81 percent have been diagnosed in students, according to the School Covid Report Card, an online database that tracks cases in schools.

However, some school officials reported this week that there is no evidence that those students are contracting the virus in the classrooms, cafeterias, or hallways, and that the local communities’ vaccination rates, which are higher than in other parts of Long Island, are having a noticeable impact.

For high school students and their families looking toward college, virtual programs to be offered through local libraries on Wednesday evening are aimed at understanding and navigating the admissions and merit scholarship application processes.

Coming up for kids and teens: seasonal fun, sports and dance activities, movies, and ways to enjoy the great outdoors.

Having closed its doors in June after the Sag Harbor School District expanded its prekindergarten offerings to a full-day program, the Rainbow School has now donated its furniture, books, arts and crafts supplies, and other learning materials to the school district. The Quogue Wildlife Refuge, Goat on a Boat Puppet Theater, and the Hamptons Art Camp also received a portion of the donations.

Small sums are adding up to big worries at the Springs School, where a major construction and renovation project has been getting glowing reviews from many people amid its final stages of work. On Monday night, however, "many" did not include the members of the school board.

The Ross School has appointed as its interim head of school a veteran administrator whose previous employment at a private school system in Chicago was marked by a no-confidence vote by the faculty he led.

The East Hampton School District has passed its annual audit with flying colors. During a school board meeting on Tuesday, its auditor, Jeffrey Jones of the EFPR Group, said the district had earned an "unmodified opinion," the best possible outcome.

School spirit will be on display next week at East Hampton High School, where Spirit Week festivities begin on Tuesday. 

When she worked as a secretary at the Springs School, Susan Bennett "always put children first," her family said this week. Among her many contributions to the school was "Susan's Lunch Drawer," where kids could go if they were hungry and didn't have anything to eat.

A celebration of the Long Pond Greenbelt on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. behind the South Fork Natural History Museum means guided walks, birding, games, live animal visits, a reptile search, and even free ice cream.

East Hampton High School's newest classroom isn't the lecturing sort of learning environment. It's a hands-on home for a new culinary arts program: a commercial kitchen lab that will be used to teach and practice cooking, baking, and other aspects of the hospitality industry, readying students for real-world careers in a field high in demand here on the East End.

Dance and theater programming, jazz education day, card making and community service opportunities for teens, and more kid-friendly activities are coming up this week.

The East Hampton School District has a homework assignment for local government leaders and community members: Brainstorm solutions to a teacher-and-staff shortage that's projected only to get worse because of the lack of affordable housing options here.

Bay Street Theater's latest kids' classes are on Shakespeare and musical theater. Children ages 7 to 13 will take on a junior version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. in Sag Harbor starting this weekend and running through Nov. 13.

The Springs School District has finished the bulk of its $23 million renovation and expansion project — meaning its 707 students have a lot more space to stretch their learning legs.