Education

Too many financial factors were up in the air for the Springs School District to be able to present a draft during a 2020-21 budget workshop on Monday, school officials said.

The Amagansett School is building its 2020-2021 budget around the possibility that 30 new students will arrive — 15 in the school itself and 15 older children in the East Hampton School District — once the Gansett Meadow affordable housing complex just down the road is completed.     

Monday through Friday, Feb. 7, has been designated the first Waste-Free Lunch Week at the East Hampton Middle School. Students in the school’s Surfrider chapter and student government club are encouraging their peers to trade single-use plastics and packaging for reusable versions when they take their lunches to school.

The goal, according to Charlie Soriano, the principal, is to experiment with “making small changes over the long term.” He called it “an excellent idea on their part.”

A first draft of the Bridgehampton School District’s proposed 2020-21 budget is about $700,000 over what New York State’s cap on tax levy increases would allow, according to information released during a Jan. 22 school board meeting.

Katy Graves, whose last official day as the Sag Harbor School District superintendent was Jan. 6, has been named as the new executive director of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center in East Hampton.

It’s been two years since the Bridgehampton School established a career and technical diploma track in agriculture, and students in the program now hope to hatch a new animal science program to go along with it.

With a plan they have dubbed “the Hen Hive,” the students want to build a coop and raise chickens.

From curious third graders taking their first steps into science to seasoned seventh and eighth graders winning ribbons with sophisticated experiments, the Montauk School’s annual science fair on Friday was a journey into the minds of children.

The Wait Until 8th effort is banking on parents signing on and spreading the word. “By banding together, this will decrease the pressure felt by kids and parents alike over the kids having a smartphone,” it says.

Project Most, the nonprofit that has partnered with the East Hampton Neighborhood House to expand its after-school activities for children, will have open house hours at the Neighborhood House today and Sunday to familiarize parents and kids with its programs.

Project Most runs after-school programs at the Springs School and John M. Marshall Elementary School and this month began offering Saturday programming at the Neighborhood House for children in prekindergarten through fifth grade.

The Hampton Music Educators Association’s annual high school music concert will be held Saturday night, bringing together hundreds of talented students at the Eastport-South Manor High School. More information is online at hamptonmea.org.

Katy Graves, whose last official day as the Sag Harbor School District superintendent was Jan. 6, was named as the new executive director of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center in East Hampton.

A group of parents of Sagaponack School students spent the last several years lobbying the school board to add Bridgehampton as a choice for children in prekindergarten and in fourth grade and up. Their campaign has yielded the outcome they had hoped for.     

“Let’s get together as one, support each other, and create action plans so we can move forward and have an impact on our community,” Bonnie Michelle Cannon, the executive director of the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, told a crowd of more than 200 people before a screening of “Just Mercy” on Saturday at the Regal Cinema in East Hampton.     

Lea Bryant, a health teacher at the East Hampton Middle School, has been named Suffolk County health teacher of the year by the New York State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor is offering a number of new performance workshops for kids and teens starting in the next few weeks.

The Sag Harbor School Board on Jan. 13 declined to take a formal stance on proposed state legislation that would mandate the human papillomavirus vaccine for students — but not without a discussion of whether or not it is even in the board’s purview to take on such matters.     

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has announced that the cap on tax levy increases for the 2020-21 budget cycle is 1.81 percent, down from 2 percent in the last two years.     

The 28th Guild Hall Student Art Festival aims to bring students’ artistic experiences together in a cohesive way.     

Construction crews working at the Sag Harbor Learning Center last spring removed about 300 tons of soil contaminated with arsenic, which school officials said likely seeped into the ground from wood treated with chromated copper arsenate that was thought to exist on the property at one point in time. 

As Monday is Martin Luther King’s Birthday, the library will take a page from his legacy when it hosts a “diverse book show-and-tell” on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. for all ages.     

South Fork schools have followed up on a 2019 New York State Education Department mandate requiring schools to test for the presence of mercury vapors in certain types of flooring materials, and documentation provided by the Sag Harbor and East Hampton School Districts this week showed none of the rubberlike floors in their buildings were emitting those harmful vapors.

East Hampton School District officials announced Tuesday they have planned a Monday closing date with East Hampton Town for the purchase of the town’s former scavenger waste site on Springs Fireplace Road, which the school district is buying for $2.3 million to build its own bus barn and auto mechanics classroom.

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will run free after-school art workshops for children in kindergarten through fifth grade on Mondays and Thursdays from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. starting next week. Participants will learn about various artists and use the work of professionals as inspiration for their own artwork. Advance registration is required at parrishart.org.

Parents interested in more deeply understanding their children have several upcoming opportunities to learn from experts in the fields of education and child development.

Raquel Babb has always loved movies. Some of her favorites depict life in high school in America, and almost always feature cheerleaders. The only problem was that the Ross School, where Raquel studies, hadn’t had a cheerleading team since 2012.

There was no official “first flush” fanfare, but instead a simple announcement on Twitter last Thursday that the Springs School had turned on its newly completed innovative/alternative septic system while the students were on winter recess.

Adam Fine, who has championed school safety, academic growth, and mental and physical health for teens during his 10 years as the East Hampton High School principal, will take over for Richard Burns as superintendent in the 2021-22 school year, the district announced Tuesday.

Adam Fine, who has championed school safety, academic growth, and mental and physical health for teens during his 10 years as the East Hampton High School principal, will take over for Richard Burns as superintendent in the 2021-22 school year, the district announced Tuesday.

Project Most, a nonprofit organization that runs after-school and summer programs for young children, has announced that it will offer Saturday sessions beginning on Jan. 11 at the Neighborhood House in East Hampton. A full nine-week summer camp there is also on the horizon.     

The Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton will have another of its “sensory friendly” mornings on Saturday from 8 to 10.