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.

In East Hampton, educators are getting ready to expand a pilot kindergarten program in which half the school day is taught in English and half in Spanish, citing success better than they could have projected.

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.     

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.