Education

Coming up this week for kids and teens: a celebration of the Long Pond Greenbelt at the South Fork Natural History Museum, free arts and crafts workshops at local ibraries, and open gym nights sponsored by the East Hampton Town Recreation Department .

Francisco Vazquez, a Springs School sixth grader, has had his big break. Recently, he was on the radio with WLNG talking about winning an environmentalism and earth video contest the focus of which was keeping East Hampton clean.

Eastern Suffolk BOCES is set to receive about $4.6 million from New York State to create a pipeline of candidates qualified to go on to special education teaching careers in East End schools. 

Fall on the East End means apples, pumpkins, corn, and sunflowers are in season, and there are plenty of ways for kids and families to enjoy them.

Buoyed by advice from a neighbor, members of the Springs School Board opted Tuesday to embark on a search for their next superintendent themselves, rather than hire a consulting firm to do it for them. 

Ron White, the former president of the Bridgehampton School Board who also served as the varsity boys basketball head coach for six years, is stepping down from the board, according to a meeting agenda put out by the school on Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday afternoon, the United States Department of Education announced that the Amagansett School has been named a National Blue Ribbon School, a prestigious and difficult-to-obtain honor that is based largely on students’ academic performance. Though there was applause, the announcement did little to ease the tension in the room at a board meeting later in the day, as it quickly became apparent that parents and teachers had come prepared with pointed questions about how school operations have been running lately.

The A&G Dance Company has returned to the Southampton Cultural Center for another year of dance and art education. Plus: a baby-gear swap at CMEE, art and STEM projects, kids' movies, and more.

The Journalism Club is back in session at the Springs School, and a new assistant principal has arrived: Springs students report the news.

Every morning, thanks to a new policy enacted for the start of the academic year, pupils at Pierson Middle and High School slip their cellphones into pouches that are then magnetically sealed, preventing the students from using their phones during the school day. “Yondr appears to be cutting down on the number of distractions to learning,” said Anthony Chase Mallia, the president of the faculty union, the Teachers Association of Sag Harbor, during Monday's school board meeting. Students are “getting more done in groups” and are “actually talking to one another again in the hallways and lunch room.”

One of the most popular events of the year at the Children’s Museum of the East End, Big Truck Day, is planned for Saturday, Sept. 30. Space is limited and early registration is encouraged online at cmee.org. Plus: book clubs, reptiles visiting the library, theater performances, arts and crafts, and more.

The Springs School is having trouble attracting and retaining teaching assistants despite the entry-level qualifications, and despite a $200-per-college-credit bonus, paid to teaching assistants who choose to pursue higher education.

An audit released Friday by the New York State Comptroller's office identified potential areas of weakness in the East Hampton School District's information technology practices, noting that a potential "risk of unauthorized access, lost data, and inability to recover from a network disruption" could occur. District officials, who agreed with certain parts of the auditors' findings and disagreed with others, said Monday that they welcomed the analysis and are viewing it through a constructive lens.

The John Jermain Memorial Library has two reading challenges for young patrons. Plus: tons of arts-and-crafts sessions, story time, movies, and more for kids and teens.

Joining the anonymous donor who gave $54,500 last month so the cash-strapped Wainscott School could restore art, music, gym, and technology classes, several more community members have stepped up, collectively giving about $23,000, also anonymously, so the district can add field trips back to the curriculum.

The latest new offering from Project Most is an early-childhood educational program designed for 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds, running for three hours each weekday at the Most Holy Trinity School in East Hampton beginning Sept. 18.

There’re still a few days left to wrap up those summer reading lists, grab your school supplies, and pick out those first-day outfits before the start of classes next week. Other activities for kids and teens include art projects, book clubs, science presentations, movies, and more.

School districts across the South Fork will welcome students back to their hallways and classrooms next week, in many cases with new classes and clubs on offer, recently hired teachers to meet and greet, sparkling facilities to explore, and new chances every day to make it a great academic year.

The fall season has already begun or soon will for a number of East Hampton High School's teams. Presumably, given the fact that eight of the 11 made the postseason in 2022, the prospects are likewise promising this year.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly renovated Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center on Friday served as a venue for Gov. Kathy Hochul to underscore New York State’s $7 billion investment in making child care more affordable and accessible for working parents. The State Legislature is contributing $425,000 to the center’s $3.3 million overhaul, which saw the 70-year-old facility tripled in size up to 7,000 square feet, modernized, and equipped with amenities to support and encourage an underserved segment of youth in Bridgehampton and nearby areas.

Prestino the Magician will perform a magic show for an all-ages audience on Tuesday afternoon from 2 to 3 at the East Hampton Library. Plus: movies, arts and crafts, trivia night, giant games, and more on the calendar for kids and teens.

Brigid Collins, who has spent 16 years at the Montauk School as its assistant principal, summer school principal, and coordinator of curriculum and enrichment, has accepted a new role as superintendent of the Andes Central School District in upstate New York.

Sag Harbor now has its own chapter of Moms Demand Action, an advocacy group that was formed the day after the mass school shooting in Sandy Hook, Conn., in December 2012. “We believe the power of this issue unifies us by gathering as a community with the unique resolve of mothers and caregivers,” said Meredith Burns, a Sag Harbor mom who is encouraging other parents to join the conversation.

An anonymous donor has pledged $54,500 to the Wainscott School so that the cash-strapped district can reinstate "specials," which are classes such as art, music, gym, and technology. Facing an austerity plan after the failure, twice, of a tax-cap-busting budget, Deborah Haab, the district superintendent, said it "will make a tremendous difference in the day-to-day operations, especially for the students, and the school itself."

The Hamptons Observatory and the South Fork Natural History Museum are teaming up for a summer stargazing party on Wednesday. Plus: arts and crafts, a practice SAT exam for teens, summer reading celebrations, story time, and more for kids and teens.

Enrollment in the East Hampton School District is expected to decrease by 210 students over the next five years, a drop of about 12 percent from current enrollment levels. The analysis is tied to plummeting birth rates in Suffolk County over the last five to 10 years, particularly on the South Fork, where the rate is expected to remain low as the cost of housing suitable for families remains high.

The East Hampton Sportsmen's Alliance is hosting a family fishing trip at sunset on Tuesday aboard the Miss Montauk. Children under 17 can join the fun for free. Plus: The East Hampton Library's Children's Fair, stories and crafts, kids' movies, puppet shows, and more.

Beginning with its Aug. 28 meeting, the Sag Harbor School Board will no longer take comments from online participants during its public-comment sessions. The change was made to align to the return of pre-Covid protocols. The meetings will continue to be live-streamed online.

It's fair to say the Kids Cancel Cancer benefit, coming up on Tuesday, is a sort of positive take on "cancel culture." Four teens and a committee of peers are raising money for cancer research. "Pediatric cancer has affected all of our families in some way," said Mischa Abend, who along with three friends, Hayley Silvers, Ava Litman, and Abey Fuks, is organizing the fund-raiser for the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation.

Charlie Stern, who started the peer-tutoring program, realized that there are students in need of tutoring who couldn't access or afford it, and that there were also Spanish-speaking students in need of assistance. He looped in several peers recommended by his math teacher, and the eight teens have been making an impact.