Education

Many years of diligent academic efforts have paid off for Nicholas Cooper and Leah Fromm, who have just been named East Hampton High School’s 2024 valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively.

“It’s going to be a difficult process. A lot of things are really out of our control,” Adam Fine, the East Hampton School District superintendent, said during a Feb. 6 budget workshop that kicked off the school board’s discussion of the 2024-25 fiscal year budget.

For kids with earthy interests, Marders, the popular garden shop in Bridgehampton, has some unique upcoming offerings. Plus: dinosaur fun, children's movies, science activities, stories, and more family-friendly fun coming up.

As the town’s planning board continues to weigh Project Most’s application for redevelopment at 92 Three Mile Harbor Road, the site of the now-defunct East Hampton Neighborhood House, nearby residents are banding together in opposition, suggesting that the history of Freetown, their home values, and quiet enjoyment of their properties are at odds with the plan.

Springs School eighth graders are eagerly awaiting their field trip to Philadelphia at the end of this school year to celebrate their hard work in their last year of middle school. On March 3, the Springs Fire Department will host a community breakfast from 7 to 11 a.m. as a fund-raiser for this trip.

Amagansett School District officials are anticipating some “big changes” in the 2024-25 school year budget, as they try to maintain a “fiscally responsible balanced budget” for the school’s Blue Ribbon academic programs, as well as a healthy and safe campus for students and staff.

Parents and a former Springs student aired serious concerns this week over the impact of bullying and harassment they say is taking place on buses and the playground, prompting pledges from school officials to follow up.

Starting in September, the Bridgehampton School District will offer its students a slate of new courses designed to boost academic rigor and prepare them for future careers. Its school board approved the curriculum offerings in January, and teachers and guidance counselors have already been talking them up, getting the kids excited for what’s in store.

Guild Hall’s Student Art Festival is ongoing through Feb. 26, but this weekend holds a special highlight: Viv Corringham, an artist and composer, will join Springs School fifth graders for a choir performance on Saturday at 3 p.m. Plus: stories, crafts, kids' movies and book clubs, social activities for pre-teens, and more.

Springs School is having a sneaker drive and will accept donations of gently used sneakers until Feb. 29. The drive was thought up and organized by the Diversity Club as a way to raise money for the school while also donating to a good cause.

The Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk, which has operated the child care program at the Montauk Playhouse for 17 years, has announced it will cease operations there effective May 3, and while East Hampton Town is already seeking bids from other providers, many Montauk families are left coping with uncertainty.

The jazz band, camerata choir, and chamber orchestra of East Hampton High School will give a concert Thursday night at 6:30. Elsewhere, the Valentine's Day crafts and programs are picking up.

“I’m very happy to share, so the younger generation wouldn’t say that it never happened,” Judy Sleed of East Hampton, who escaped the Nazis in Budapest in 1944, told students at East Hampton High School. “I just hope you don’t have to experience anything like I went through.”

School districts in New York State are facing another difficult budget cycle for the fiscal year ahead, with inflation still at challenging levels, dramatic increases in health insurance costs, and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent announcement of changes that could leave some South Fork districts coping with as much as a 20-percent decrease in state aid.

Springs School’s two robotics teams, along with their coaches, were all smiles Saturday because they received a total of three awards at the Long Island LEGO League Robotics Tournament at William Floyd High School.

Montauk has a new school board member, and four Springs teachers have received donations for classroom projects.

In the East Hampton School District, the prekindergarten classes may be shrinking in size but the kids are coming in with more educational needs than ever, administrators said last week. Now, the district is getting ready to explore adding a program for 3-year-olds.

The Wainscott School is encouraging parents to register their children "as soon as possible."

The Church in Sag Harbor will host Mai Le Ho, a French-Vietnamese performance artist and educator, who will lead a diverse cast of performers at an all-ages dance jam called LayeRhythm on Saturday evening from 6:30 to 9. Plus: winter blues fun at the East Hampton Library, children's movies, arts and crafts, and more coming up for kids and teens.

Rob Schumacher, a science teacher at Sag Harbor’s Pierson Middle and High School, presented a proposal Monday for a new science classroom: a “wet lab” that would bring marine environments to life in a real-life, hands-on way, going beyond textbooks and simulations.

The Springs School Robotics Teams are getting ready to compete in a qualifying competition this weekend at William Floyd High School. The bus will leave Springs School at 5:30 a.m.

Springs School District officials reported disappointing scores this week from standardized math and English tests given last spring to students in grades three through eight. “We can improve,” said Erik Kelt, the new school principal, in announcing strategies for boosting students' proficiency in these subjects.

The East Hampton Town Trustees voted on Monday to donate $2,000 to Finn O’Rourke, an East Hampton High School sophomore, toward the purchase of a satellite tag for a shark movement research project he plans to conduct this year as part of his science studies.

When Guild Hall’s Student Art Festival returns this weekend after taking a hiatus in 2023 while gallery renovations were underway, students and their families will have lots to celebrate beyond simply seeing their work hanging on the walls of a prestigious venue.

The curtain rises tomorrow on the latest South Fork Performing Arts youth musical theater production, “Godspell,” at LTV Studios in Wainscott. Plus: stories, arts and crafts, cookies and cinnamon rolls, book clubs, dinosaurs, and a reading therapy dog, all coming up in the next week for kids and teens.

The Springs School fourth-grade opera, “Learning to S.W.I.M.,” took the stage last Thursday, and it might just be the best one yet, the school's Journalism Club writes.

Before the pandemic, several East Hampton seniors and juniors had started a campaign called Breathe for Change, at one point even testifying before a congressional committee about the evils of vaping. Then Covid-19 happened, they graduated, and their momentum was lost. Now, East Hampton students are again taking action to combat it.

Ahead of dropping temperatures expected to freeze the rain and slush left by Tuesday's inclement weather, a majority of schools in East Hampton and Southampton Towns have announced delayed openings for Wednesday. East Hampton Town government offices will open two hours later on Wednesday.

The East Hampton and Amagansett School Districts have signed an agreement allowing Amagansett to buy lunches prepared by East Hampton for its own students.

The community at large has been asked to pitch in to stock the new Little Free Food Pantry boxes that have been installed at the John M. Marshall Elementary School and East Hampton Middle School as well as one that will soon go up at East Hampton High School.