Education

Public hearings have been scheduled in each school district ahead of the May 21 budget vote. See when your district's hearing is.

“I’ve definitely had to answer questions” about the 2024-25 school budget proposal, Joshua Odom, Montauk’s superintendent, said in explaining the strange situation the district came up against this year — the discovery, by a school board member, that taxpayers were accidentally overcharged last year by approximately $56 per thousand dollars of assessed value. The solution? A tax credit for Montauk homeowners.

Taking risks can be scary and overwhelming, but Emily O’Reilly, the eighth-grade English teacher at Springs School, showed students that taking risks can be worth it. Recently, she “walked the walk,” so to speak, when she entered a poetry contest she saw posted in a local newspaper.

The unexpected resignation of Kevin Warren, who was appointed to fill a board vacancy in October 2019 and was elected to a full term last year, means that a school board race that would have been contested is now technically uncontested in Amagansett.

Since last fall, students from the Amagansett School, the John M. Marshall Elementary School, and the Ross School, as well as those in Project Most and the Marine Explorers Program at the East Hampton Town Marine Museum, have been learning about Indigenous cultures and applying what they discovered to hands-on projects that are now on display at the Clinton Academy. Plus: kids' movies, butterflies, poetry, tea time, and more coming up for kids and teens.

With last week's adoption of the Sag Harbor School District's 2024-25 budget and associated propositions, and the filing of school board candidate petitions on Monday, the official ballot for the district's May vote is now set in stone.

The elimination of four special-education teaching positions is still on the table at the Amagansett School, despite the school board pulling the official resolution off Tuesday's meeting agenda.

For the Springs and East Hampton School Districts, the good word came from Albany on Tuesday morning, just in time. The State Legislature is poised to adopt a new budget that preserves school funding to at least as much as what districts received this year. The news allowed both districts to make last-minute adjustments to lower their respective tax levies for the May 21 vote, though both are still over the cap.

Tomorrow and Saturday, the student actors and singers of South Fork Performing Arts will take on a beloved musical tale that needs little in the way of introduction — “The Wizard of Oz.” Plus: puzzles and chess, custom mug making, snacks and stories, and more coming up for kids and teens.

A representative from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office met with Springs Middle School students recently to tell us how dangerous drugs are, including cocaine, oxycodone, and marijuana, and especially fentanyl, which is so dangerous that even the tiniest amount can be lethal.

For the partial solar eclipse on Monday, many Springs School teachers took their students outside for the viewing, and they all stared up at the sky in amazement in their dark eclipse glasses.

Facing a perfect storm of cost increases in nearly every area of the budget, the Springs School Board is likely to adopt a $37.8 million, over-the-tax-cap budget, meaning school district voters will be faced with a difficult choice on May 21 when they head to the polls for the annual budget vote.

The East Hampton High School choir sang Friday night at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall for the Choirs of America Festival. About 300 people made the trip from East Hampton to attend the concert.

For kids and teens this week: art and community service projects, teddy bear tea time, dance, STEAM activities, and more.

Local students will shine onstage this weekend in Sag Harbor, with the Pierson High School Drama Club putting on the musical “The Lightning Thief” at the high school and the dancers of Studio 3 taking the stage at Bay Street Theater for “The Enchanted Forest.”

The president of the Wainscott School Board on Saturday appealed to the members and guests of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee for support of its 2024-25 budget plan.

Students and teachers at the Bridgehampton School will soon see more bees buzzing about the campus, fitting for a school whose mascot is the bee. Through a partnership with ReWild Long Island, a nonprofit organization that promotes “sustainable landscaping for biodiversity and climate resilience,” according to its website, Bridgehampton is in the early stages of planning a new pollinator garden.

Big things are happening in East Hampton High School’s science research program, whose students recently returned from two rounds of the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair with a number of awards — including a first-place finish in the plant sciences competition for Leah Fromm, one of 61 students in the research program who will show off their work at next Thursday’s Science Research Symposium at the high school.

Spring is definitely springing, if Project Most’s explosion of new after-school and weekend programs for kids is any indication. In store for this month are workshops on photo collage, sewing, magnetic planters, robotics, and stop-motion animation, and an escape room challenge. And there's more for kids to do at libraries and museums.

Administrators and board members at the Ross School have approved a reorganization of grade levels at its two campuses, with an eye toward “optimizing resources and enhancing students’ overall educational outcomes,” according to Tom Sturtevant, the head of school.

On March 22, Springs School held its annual World’s Fair celebration, hosted by the school's Diversity Club. “It is about celebrating other countries and their cultures,” the club's adviser, Vicki Firemark, said.

Most school districts on Long Island are struggling to rein in tax-levy increases for next year’s budgets, with some planning teacher layoffs and program reductions in the face of harsh inflation and the possible loss of millions of dollars in New York State funding, but that’s not the case in Montauk, where in June of 2023, a school board member discovered a discrepancy in his school tax bill that will lead to a tax credit for Montauk homeowners next year.

Over the objections of dozens of parents and teachers, and without waiting for the New York State Legislature to sort out funding to school districts by way of an established state budget, Amagansett became the first school district in East Hampton Town this week to finalize its 2024-25 budget.

For the 2024-25 school year, the Bridgehampton School District will likely put a $22.64 million spending plan before taxpayers for the May 21 budget vote. It has yet to be formally adopted by the school board, however, as numbers can still change pending the outcome of budget talks between the New York State Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The school's annual Sports Night, a tradition since 2002, raises money for field trips and this year took in $3,800.

The East Hampton Trustees enthusiastically approved a proposal by the South Fork Sea Farmers to construct a fourth oyster reef in waters under their jurisdiction, and the first to be situated in Three Mile Harbor.

On March 18, eighth graders from Springs School visited Liberty Island and Ellis Island thanks to the school's PTA.

The East Hampton Town Board passed three resolutions that will ensure the continued operation of the child care program at the Montauk Playhouse Community Center after the Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk pulls out, with Project Most set to take over in July.

A pond cleanup, spring-themed crafts, and more for kids and families.

In the spirit of unity and community, rather than competition, three local high-end construction companies have come together to launch the Construction Career Charitable Fund, a scholarship program for high school students who are interested in learning the building trades.