Education

Voting for school budgets and board members will be by absentee ballot this year, and ballots must be returned by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9. Here's what you need to know.

District officials in East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton, Montauk, Springs, and Sagaponack have all fielded inquiries from new families who are considering placing their children in schools here due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are five candidates running for the Sag Harbor School Board in the June 9 election — two incumbents, Alex Kriegsman and Brian DeSesa; a former school board member, Sandi Kruel, and two newcomers, Helen Roussel and Ronald Reed.

Residents will cast votes by absentee ballot this year to weigh in on the East Hampton School District’s proposed $71.98 million budget, plus a separate measure to move forward with building a culinary arts education facility at the high school.

The Wainscott and Sagaponack school budgets are two of the tiniest spending plans across Long Island’s 124 school districts, with proposals of $3.7 million and $1.7 million, respectively, for the school year to come.

An online public hearing on the budget, followed by a virtual meet-and-greet session with candidates for the school board, is planned for Wednesday at 6 p.m. on Google Meet.

With an eye on school enrollment, which is likely to increase, the Amagansett School District has proposed a budget of $11.37 million for the 2020-21 school year.

Students in Melanie Freyre’s East Hampton Middle School chorus took part in an online songwriting workshop last week with Jim Papoulis, an acclaimed composer.

The East Hampton School District has reached a tuition agreement with at least three of the five schools that send their seventh-through-twelfth-grade students to East Hampton Middle and High Schools.

Priscila Ortega of Amagansett, who graduated in December from the State University at Old Westbury, has received the Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence from SUNY.

The Montauk School District’s $20.87 million proposed budget for the 2020-21 academic year takes into account increases in tuition for high school students, expanded special education programs, and improvements to the facilities.

There are approximately 230 seniors in East Hampton High School's class of 2020, and community members are lining up by the dozen — virtually, of course — to make sure every one of them feels special during these challenging times.

The East Hampton Star’s annual print supplement dedicated to high school graduation, always a keepsake for years to come, will be published on June 25. In these strange -- and historic -- times, what better way to send your senior off than with a custom congratulatory message in The Star?

Now is the time to reserve space in print for a special message of your design. The deadline for placing graduation advertisements is June 12. Those wishing to inquire about this service can call 631-324-0002 or email [email protected].

The Springs School Board voted Monday to put a budget of just over $30 million before taxpayers for the annual school vote, along with two ballot propositions.

The Sag Harbor School District on Tuesday released a corrected version of its budget impact statement. If the school budget is approved on June 9 there would be an increase in school taxes, not a decrease

Covid-19 can't stop the Bridgehampton School from growing its agricultural program.

After serving for 20 years as principal at Pierson Middle and High School, and as interim superintendent since mid-March, Jeff Nichols, who led a controversial initiative to bring the International Baccalaureate program to the high school in 2012, will assume the role of Sag Harbor District superintendent.

With school closures extended through the end of the academic year, educators are beginning to consider what the opening of next year might look like.

James Crenshaw, the principal at Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Education's Westhampton Beach Learning Center, is set to be appointed the new principal of East Hampton High School on Tuesday.

State officials do not think it’s possible to reopen schools this year "in a way that would keep our students and educators safe.”

The extensive renovation and expansion at the Bridgehampton School, which was halted for a time because of the pandemic, has been deemed an essential construction project.

The Montauk School is the next on the South Fork to explore a construction project. According to Jack Perna, the superintendent, the district has reached an agreement with an architect, John Tanzi, to replace the school’s three portable classrooms and storage room (which has doubled as a classroom), which date from September 1973. The plans are to install modular rooms that would be more permanent than their predecessors.

Almost universally, high school seniors are lamenting the loss of a special year. "The world changed right when we were born,” said Heidi Bucking, a Pierson High School senior, “and now it’s going to change again right when we’re going to be adults.”

While schools statewide are closed because of Covid-19, their employees are still being paid, but many are saving money in other areas.

Local school boards are still waiting to hear from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo about when school budget votes and the election of board members can take place.

Covid-19 has cast a long shadow over the health care industry, and there’s a sense of trepidation and anxiety among the 65 practical nurses who are graduating Thursday from their Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services program. But there’s also a sense of hope and purpose among the graduates.

Nassau and Suffolk Counties’ Athletic Councils pulled the plug on high school springs sports, a “heartbreaking decision,” in the words of Section VIII’s executive director, Pat Pizzarelli, but one that was not surprising given the coronavirus pandemic.

The world’s top-ranked female triathlete, Katie Zaferes, an Olympic silver-medalist cyclist, Mari Holden, and Ally Friedman, a Ross School senior who in February was cited by the United States Tennis Association as its junior volunteer of the year, mentored Theresa Roden’s I-Tri girls on Saturday.

Chef Jill Hamill has quite the following on YouTube lately. In just a few days, a handful of her cooking videos have racked up hundreds of views and subscribers.

Supplies for Success, a national organization founded 18 years ago and now based in Sagaponack, has handed out thousands of art kits filled with coloring books, crayons, construction paper, washable glue, and other items to help keep children learning and busy during the Covid-19 pandemic.