East Hampton High's baseball team began its season Saturday with a 1-0 win over Kings Park. That same day, the softball team was "mercied" 12-0 by Sayville, a defending state champion.

Consultants hired by the town to study aircraft activity at East Hampton Airport, including noise complaints and the potential economic impact of closing the airport, told the town board on Tuesday that after four consecutive years of increases, the number of flights between July 2 and Sept. 30, 2020, was 35 percent lower than in 2019, but because of the pandemic, "2020 was a unique year, and it's a bit of an outlier."

Amos Goodman, a former chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, last week pleaded guilty in Suffolk County First District Court to one misdemeanor and three violations after being charged in 2018 with 20 felonies when, during his time as chairman, he was accused of forging signatures on candidate petitions for an East Hampton Town special election.

"We're in such a better place," said Adam Fine, the assistant superintendent of the East Hampton School District, summing up the progress since the beginning of the pandemic. As Covid cases taper down and outdoor celebrations start to ramp up, signs that we're turning a corner in the pandemic are everywhere in local schools — and gratefully so, administrators and students say.

On Tuesday, voters across New York State will head to the polls to weigh in on school district spending plans and propositions and to elect board members. Bridgehampton and Sagaponack seek to override New York State's cap on tax-levy increases, which will require approval of at least 60 percent of district voters. All but one local district, Montauk, are proposing budgets that increase overall spending. Here are the basics in each of the school districts The Star covers.

Registration is open for East Hampton Town's summertime youth clinics and programs in sailing, basketball, tennis, and swimming. Swimming lessons are free, and the others range from $45 to $225 for each week of clinics.

NAMM's Best Communities for Music Education lauds schools for their "innovative and resourceful music education programs." This year represents East Hampton's sixth straight such award.

There are both pros and cons to keeping an eight-period day in place or retooling the daily schedule for nine periods, Springs School District administrators said Monday. A lively work session debate drew input from several teachers and school board members alike, all of whom said they wanted further discussion before any decisions are made.

In her first bid for a seat on the Springs School Board, Hella Drew will challenge Barbara Dayton, a two-term incumbent, in the May 18 election.

When a woman was dropped off unresponsive in the foyer of East Hampton Town police headquarters in Wainscott in February of last year, "that was my first experience of something like that," said Detective Michael Coleman, one of the officers who rushed to the front of the building.

The second jetty at Georgica Beach was slippery on Friday morning, to which the man who fell and pulled a muscle in his right quad might attest. He called in to ask for help getting off the beach, “so he could get medical attention on his own,” police said.

David Wisner, the low-flying pilot who was charged with second-degree reckless endangerment after buzzing Sag Harbor at around 5:30 p.m. on April 13 and, minutes before that, areas of Springs, was arraigned on May 7 in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court for the alleged misdemeanor. Mr. Wisner's 90-day ban from East Hampton Airport is ongoing.

Even in a slow year, there were 12,500 flights in or out of the airport — an astonishing number in itself that should tell you that our kind-of quiet skies are about to get a whole lot louder as Covid-19 restrictions ease.

School district elections are Tuesday, and we encourage residents to take part. While there is a dearth of contested school board races, important ballot measures are proposed in Springs, Sagaponack, Sag Harbor, Montauk, and Amagansett.

I had a feeling that Tuesday morning was going to be weird. When Weasel, the Lab mix, rousted me around 4:30 to go outside, the peeper frogs in the swamp were especially worked up and a whippoorwill sang from a tree in the driveway so close that I could hear a clicking he made between choruses. Click. Whip-poor-will. Click. I went back upstairs and put my head down on a pillow.

Have you seen the commercial for Extra sugar-free gum, set “sometime in the not too distant future,” in which — as Celine Dion sings “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” — citizens freed from lockdown rush giddily into the streets, pop a spearmint slice into their mouth, and leap into the arms of strangers to make out?

The antidote to the social-distancing doldrums may very well be social-dancing lessons, and for that, one needs to look no further than Friday night country line-dancing classes at the Southampton Cultural Center.

The high school prom: fun or fraught?

While it would be nice to write off all state income and property taxes, as we used to, I’m willing to stand the gaff if it means that President Biden’s broad spending plan will pass. The New York legislators who have said they won’t vote for the bill if our state income and property tax write-offs remain capped at $10,000, should abandon that stand in favor of the greater good.

Memories of heavenly dates at Jahn’s Ice Cream Parlor in Queens trigger thoughts of the recent loss of Scoop du Jour here in East Hampton.