Perry Gershon, a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge First District Representative Lee Zeldin in the midterm election, spoke to supporters at the Lily Pond Lane, East Hampton, residence of Loida Lewis on Saturday morning.

Mr. Gershon, who lives in East Hampton, told the gathering that polling indicates that he and Kate Browning are neck and neck in the race for the nomination, and that the other candidates – David Pechefsky, Elaine DiMasi, and Vivian Viloria-Fisher – trail them by a wide margin. He appealed to the guests at the gathering to vote for him in the June 26 primary and to encourage others to do so as well.

Mr. Gershon said that he believes he can appeal to unaffiliated and Independence Party voters in the district. “There are a lot of people who are unhappy with what Trump is doing to the country,” he said, noting that Mr. Zeldin, a Republican seeking a third term in Congress, is an ardent supporter of the president.

If Democrats are going to prevail in the midterm and 2020 presidential elections, they must bear “a message of hope and optimism,” he said. “I’m not going to miss that. And that’s how we get independent voters.”  

East Hampton Town police announced in a statement early Friday evening that the wreckage from Saturday's plane crash was located, along with one of the two missing victims.

Four died when the private plane crashed. The bodies of Ben and Bonnie Krupinski were pulled from the Atlantic shortly afterward among the debris, though police would not publicly confirm it was their bodies that had been found until Friday.

The identity of the body most recently found is being withheld until the Suffolk County medical examiner's office makes a positive identification, East HamptonTown Police Chief Michael Sarlo said.

The Krupinskis' 22-year-old grandson, William Maerov, and the pilot, Jon Dollard, had been missing since the crash.

"After an exhaustive search over the past week, the wreckage of the Piper PA-31 Navajo was located on Thursday afternoon approximately one mile off Atlantic Avenue Beach, and police divers have been scouring the wreckage throughout the day," Chief Sarlo said. 

"One additional victim has been located amongst the debris this afternoon," the chief said in the statement.

The body was to be taken to Coast Guard Station Montauk and from there to the Suffolk County medical examiner's office.

Police divers will continue to search for the remaining missing victim. 

A funeral service was held Friday for the Krupinskis and Mr. Maerov.

Chief Sarlo said the plane is in about 40 to 45 feet of water, with about 3 to 5 feet of visibility for divers.

Sea Tow is assisting in the plane salvage operation. 

Good Samaritans rescued three people from a burning boat in Gardiner's Bay on Friday afternoon around 2:20, the Coast Guard said.

A 28-foot Formula speedboat caught fire south of Gardiner's Island, near Cartwright Island, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier. Ed Michels, the East Hampton Town harbormaster, said the boat was near Buoy 12, in the south channel. 

A passer-by told marine officials that the engine had caught fire, but the Coast Guard had not yet determined the cause.

People on Jet Skis picked up the boaters and took them to shore, the Coast Guard said. No injuries were reported. 

Shelter Island Fire Department volunteers helped extinguish the fire from a department boat. 

In early April, a hedgerow that was the backdrop for plantings on the grounds of the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack was mistakenly destroyed by a landscaper clearing the way for a new house on neighboring property. With its annual cocktail party about to take place, the destruction has forced the conservancy to reshuffle its fund-raising priorities while searching for ways to mitigate the damage. 

The Madoo Conservancy  oversees a two-acre complex of historical buildings and gardens at 618 Sagg Main Street, which was curated by Robert Dash, a painter and writer who lived there from 1967 until his death in 2013. 

Christopher Rice is the owner of the neighboring property, a nearly one-and-a-half-acre lot that has been in his family since the 1960s. Sagaponack Village had given him permission to demolish the old house there to make way for a new one.

The shared hedgerow that separated the parcels was so thick “you had no idea there was a house there,” Alejandro Saralegui, the executive director of Madoo, said. As construction got underway on Mr. Rice’s property, a landscaping company not only removed the portion of the hedgerow on Mr. Rice’s property but the majority of it on Madoo’s side.

“The property line had been staked correctly, but the contractor came and cleared everything,” Mr. Saralegui said. He estimated that the area of the destroyed hedgerow at Madoo was about 270 feet by 5 feet. Furthermore, he said, the hedgerow, which filled in naturally over the years, was one of a kind, a mix of native plants, invasives such as bittersweet “that were like 15 feet tall,” and even dead trees. “You can’t recreate a natural Sagaponack hedgerow,” he said. “It was essentially irreplaceable.” 

The day the hedgerow was chopped down, Mr. Saralegui said he contacted Mr. Rice’s lawyer and said, “We’ve got a problem. What are you going to do?” 

Mr. Rice, who lives in Princeton, N.J., said that although he isn’t sure what caused the landscapers to make the error, he and his wife, Liza, who is a certified master gardener, are working to rectify the problem. “We’re taking this seriously,” he said. 

Mr. Saralegui acknowledged that the destruction was due to human error and was “not an example of a homeowner being a jerk.” But he also thinks the error is symptomatic of increasing disregard for natural surroundings in pursuit of development. “It happens more and more often,” Mr. Saralegui said. “People think of Madoo as this pretty garden, but there’s always been this idea of conservation involved with it, too. It’s been a bulwark against suburbanization.”  

Soon after the hedgerow was removed, Mr. Saralegui contacted Marders and Broadview Gardens, companies he regularly works with, to get estimates of the cost of replacing it. The estimates came in between $50,000 to $80,000, he said.

A few weeks ago, the Rices joined Mr. Saralegui to walk through Madoo to get a better idea of the extent of the damage. Mr. Rice said he is in discussion with the landscaping companies as well as a group of master gardeners in New Jersey, regarding the best way to regrow the hedgerow. He and his wife are intent on making the new hedgerow “something that looks good on both sides,” he said.  

Now, with the old hedgerow gone, visitors to Madoo see mounds of earth and other signs of construction on the neighbor’s property, which will also greet those who attend the conservancy’s annual fund-raising event, taking place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, June 15, and Mr. Saralegui said the proceeds, which usually go to the organization’s general operating costs, would have to be redirected.

 “Now it’s going to be about restoring Madoo,” he said. “But we’ll find a silver lining. The garden will have lost that authenticity, but we’ll be creative and do something really good with it.”

Rescuers saved the life of a 19-year-old who was found barely breathing from an overdose in front of a house in East Hampton Village Friday morning. Police then arrested him on felony charges after they found he had ransacked and damaged the interior, village police said. 

A pool construction company worker found Conor Harkins of Manhattan lying in the front yard of 20 Dunemere Lane, unconscious and unresponsive, at about 6:30 a.m. Friday. First responders said he was barely breathing, and they administered Narcan, a treatment used on suspected opioid overdoses. 

Mr. Harkins quickly came to, according to Detective Sgt. Greg Browne. The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association took him to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, where he was treated and released into police custody.

Mr. Harkins apparently kicked down the door at 20 Dunemere Lane and "destroyed the interior," Detective Browne said. Police found tables flipped over, windows broken, and items strewn about. 

Detective Brown said he had no known affiliation with the house, formerly owned by George Stephanopoulos and Alexandra Wentworth.

He was charged with second-degree burglary and second-degree criminal mischief, both felonies, and arraigned Saturday morning before East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky, who set bail at $5,000 cash or $10,000 bond. Mr. Harkins's family posted his bail. 

Infighting and acrimony were put aside on Friday night as the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee selected Councilman David Lys as its candidate for the town board seat he has occupied since he was appointed to it in January.

Mr. Lys prevailed over David Gruber, the other potential candidate in the running at the committee's meeting at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Amagansett, 63 percent to 37 percent. 

In nominating Mr. Lys, J.B. Dos Santos called him "an extremely passionate, intelligent, hands-on person," a leader and role model who has brought voters together. Mr. Lys is the best candidate to ensure that Democrats retain all five seats of the town board, he said.

Jim MacMillan, a vocal critic of the town's board's appointment of Mr. Lys, put Mr. Gruber's name into contention, recalling the longtime political activist's unsuccessful bid for East Hampton Town supervisor in 2001, his chairmanship of the Democratic Committee, and his membership on the Democratic Party campaign committee.

Mr. Gruber's concern for the citizens of East Hampton was clear, he said. "I hope you will stand with me to elect a proud Democrat," he said, emphasizing the last word as if to contrast him with Mr. Lys.

When the result of the committee's open vote was announced, the room broke into applause. Mr. Lys thanked the group for the nomination. "I am extremely honored," he said, calling himself "a workhorse," and promising to work tirelessly for the committee and for the town. "Please give me a chance to earn your respect, if I have not already," he said.

Mr. Lys's January appointment by the four Democrats on the town board, filling the seat vacated by Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc upon his election as supervisor, had angered several members of the committee. He recently changed his party registration from Republican to Democratic, and some members of the committee have loudly criticized the town board for appointing him.

Mr. Lys is serving what would have been the remaining year of Mr. Van Scoyoc's term as a councilman. Should he win in November, he will have to stand for election again in Nov. 2019 if he wants to continue on the board.

Of the 28 committee members casting a vote on Friday, Mr. Lys won 18 and Mr. Gruber, 10. Committee members' votes were weighted, based on the number of votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in the respective election districts they represented. One member abstained.

With the June 26 primary election fast approaching, the five Democratic candidates seeking to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District were measured in their remarks at a debate last Thursday at Hampton Bays High School. 

Barely a month before the primary, the candidates remained largely in lockstep on issues including immigration, guns, health care, the opioid crisis, and an economy driven by clean-energy technology that they said the district can and should have. Any efforts to criticize one another were mild and indirect at the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons debate last Thursday. The candidates instead pressed the case for their own electability in a district Mr. Zeldin won by 16 percentage points in 2016, when he defeated Anna Throne-Holst, the former Southampton Town supervisor. 

Though the Cook Political Report puts the seat in its “likely Republican” column, the eventual nominee can win by appealing to moderate and independent voters as well as the base, said one candidate, Perry Gershon, who lives in East Hampton. “We did not get that in the last two elections,” but many Republicans and Independents are unhappy with President Trump, who won the district in 2016, he said. With the right message, the Democratic nominee can carry Republican-leaning areas like Smithtown, he said, citing fellow Democrats Steve Bellone, the county executive, and Tim Sini, who was elected district attorney in November. 

“My messaging is jobs,” Mr. Gershon said. “We didn’t do that with working- class people in the last election.” He called for “credible messaging that we’re going to bring better paying jobs, particularly in clean energy,” and run against the Republican-led tax overhaul of 2017, which eliminated state and local tax deductions. (Mr. Zeldin voted against the tax bill.)

Kate Browning, a former county legislator who lives in Shirley, pointed to her six decisive victories in her district, which she said is “more Republican than Democratic,” as evidence of her electability. She also criticized the elimination of the state and local tax deduction, as well as Mr. Zeldin’s votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which she said would take health insurance from 30,000 people in the district. 

She called on Congress to produce a romised infrastructure bill, for a focus on renewable energy, and for protection of organized labor, marriage equality, and a woman’s right to choose.

Vivian Viloria-Fisher, of East Setauket, said that she, too, was repeatedly re-elected to the Legislature in a majority Republican district “because people saw I was able to produce, and represent my community.” Noting that “the environment is important to everyone in Suffolk County,” she pointed to legislation she sponsored to require new municipal buildings to use green technologies and pass Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards, as well as ban a carcinogenic additive in gasoline and promote community gardening and sustainable food sources. 

“To win, we’re going to have to excite and engage people that are not typical midterm voters,” said David Pechefsky, who worked in New York City government and as an adviser in efforts to build democratic institutions abroad. “If we don’t, we won’t win. My campaign is in part about speaking out to young people, to newly registered voters,” including Muslims, said Mr. Pechefsky, who lives in Port Jefferson. “They should be part of the broader Democratic community.” 

Elaine DiMasi, who spent 21 years “building infrastructure for the research community” at Brookhaven National Laboratory, described a crisis situation in Washington. “The stakes are very high for this election,” she said. Ms. DiMasi, who lives in Ronkonkoma, has a plan for creating “new, clean-energy jobs for the district” by harnessing the sun and wind, she said, which would “allow us to work on health care, gun violence, opioid addiction. We need Congress to be doing a better job working together to solve problems, to collaborate.” The district’s biggest problem, she said, is that “Lee Zeldin is our representative.” 

Mr. Gershon trained his criticism on President Trump, of whom Mr. Zeldin is a stalwart supporter. He is challenging Mr. Zeldin “because our country is under attack,” he said. “Donald Trump and his election has really changed the landscape,” not only putting just causes in jeopardy “but our whole republic, the core that holds us together.” When Mr. Trump won the 2016 election, “I said I had to find a way to fight back.” 

The 2018 election will be about health care, environmental protection, gun control, and an economic agenda, Mr. Gershon said. “I can speak to all” of those issues, he said, and “bring a coalition together to get elected as a Democrat in the fall.” 

Ms. Viloria-Fisher recalled her family fleeing the Dominican Republic and its then-dictator, Rafael Trujillo, when she was 3 months old. “Imagine how I felt when I began to get a glimpse of what Donald Trump was, and is,” she said. She said that she visited Mr. Zeldin prior to his vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “When he responded with just talking points — no depth, no empathy — I knew I had to run. The country was in an existential crisis.” 

Mr. Zeldin is a co-sponsor of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would allow a person with a concealed carry permit from one state to carry a firearm in any other state and on any federal land. “Law enforcement said don’t do it,” said Ms. Browning, whose husband is a detective in the New York City Police Department, “and he did it.” The congressman “is absent from the district,” she said. “He’s so far to the right, he’s forgotten who he’s supposed to be representing.” 

Instead of a government “truly working in the public interest,” ours has been “captured by warmongers,” Mr. Pechefsky said. He decried both a “reckless” and “immoral” foreign policy and the widening gap between average workers and chief executive officers, citing a 2017 report from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. that concluded that the C.E.O. of a Standard & Poor’s 500 company is paid 335 times that of a rank-and-file worker. “A smaller and smaller population is capturing more and more wealth,” he said. “We need to fight back against that.”

A May 1 announcement from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that illnesses from tick, mosquito, and flea bites more than tripled from 2004 through 2016 came as no surprise on the South Fork. During that 13-year period, 642,602 cases were reported nationwide, according to the C.D.C. 

That figure may, however, be vastly lower than the actual number. “It’s hard to get accurate accounting,” said Rebecca Young, a registered nurse and member of the medical advisory panel at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center. “Sometimes, a diagnosis is a judgment call on the part of the physician, and they don’t report to the C.D.C.”

On the South Fork, tick-borne illnesses are of far greater concern than those carried by mosquitoes or fleas; the few cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus reported annually in Suffolk County are mostly concentrated far to the west. But for those working or playing outdoors, Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, Powassan virus, and several others, including the rare but dangerous Rocky Mountain spotted fever, are causing increasing alarm. 

“There is a huge increase in calls and people saying they have Lyme,” Ms. Young said, “even at this point, this year over last. And the calls last year doubled from the year before.” In 2016, she fielded close to 400 calls, she said, a number that leapt to almost 900 last year. This year, “We’re only at the beginning of the season,” she said yesterday. “I don’t usually start getting calls until the end of May, but have been since April.”

In Ms. Young’s observation, the lone star tick, which if infected is known to carry ehrlichiosis and tularemia and is a suspected vector of Lyme disease and, possibly, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, is proliferating here. “The lone star tick is the new visitor here, and they are loving it,” she said.

The population of deer ticks, which can transmit a host of illnesses including Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Powassan virus, is also increasing, and “they’re very aggressive,” she said. “We’re going to see very shortly, when the deer tick nymphs have become adults, what’s going on” with infection rates. 

The surge in these tick populations follows an explosion in the white-footed mouse population, Ms. Young said. “The big issue is habitat destruction, which has been happening since farming began on Long Island. They drove out the mid-sized animals, who are predators for the white-footed mouse. . . . The only predators we have are scraggly, leftover foxes. Even rattlesnakes — the last time there was a rattlesnake on Long Island was, like, 1960. There are no bobcats, lynx, other mid-sized animals.” 

A warmer climate is also responsible for the surging tick population, Ms. Young believes. “It used to be that ticks died off in the winter, and now they can live more easily. We don’t get the winters we used to get. They could also be adapting to climate.” She once fielded calls from as far away as Vermont. “Now I get calls from Canada. I think that must be the warming trend.” 

On the other hand, she said, dog ticks, which can carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia, “seem to be disappearing.”

Nine new pathogens spread by ticks and mosquitoes were discovered or introduced into the United States between 2004 and 2016, according to the C.D.C., seven of which are spread through the bite of an infected tick. In an email to The Star, Benjamin Haynes, senior press officer with the C.D.C.’s Infectious Disease Media Team, cited insects’ steadily expanding geographic range, the newly discovered germs, the transporting of germs by infected creatures, the movement of insects through commerce and trade, and “changes in the weather and environment.” 

Asked if climate change was included in the weather and environmental conditions he referred to, Mr. Haynes responded that climate was one of several reasons for the insects’ expanded geographic range. “Vector-borne diseases are very weather-dependent,” he said. “The main point is, because these diseases are so unpredictable, and these are very complicated diseases in nature, there are many different factors which affect where these diseases occur and how frequent they are.” 

Richard Whalen, an East Hampton attorney, leads hikes organized by the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society. He has never fallen ill from a tick bite, and permethrin, which kills ticks and mosquitoes on contact with treated clothing, is the reason why, he said. “It will attack the nervous system of insects such as ticks,” he explained. Because it is toxic, “You don’t spray it on your skin. Properly apply it to clothing, let it dry, and then put it on. I spray my hiking shoes, and pants from the knees down. On Saturday I was in Hither Woods, off the trail for a couple of miles, and didn’t get a single tick, and there’s no doubt there were ticks there.” 

Matias Whitmore, a landscape supervisor at Charlie and Sons in Amagansett, also uses permethrin. “That’s the only stuff I’ve found that really works,” he said. “I’ve sat in tree stands when I go hunting in the fall, and I’ve seen the ticks crawl up my boot, reach the permethrin, and just fall dead.” 

Cedar oil is also useful and can be applied to the skin, Mr. Whitmore said. “The problem with permethrin is, you apply it only on exterior clothing — you never want to make skin contact because it is hyper-toxic.”

No one on his staff has fallen ill to tick-borne illnesses, he said. “We have serious conversations about it with all our crews. We know the areas we work in, if it’s forests in Northwest Woods or in Springs, or in any tall grasses. You’ve got to take precautions.” 

Both Mr. Whalen and Mr. Whitmore recommend checking one’s body for ticks, and removing any within 24 hours to avoid becoming infected. “If you have been around ticks when they get on your body, you feel them,” Mr. Whalen said. “I might be in bed, feel something on my leg, and right away will know what it is. It’s a subtle feeling, and a lot of people don’t pay attention to that . . . I’ll turn on a part of my brain to be aware to feel anything. If it bit you, you will feel a bit of an itch.” 

According to the Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center, tweezers are the best tool for removing ticks. If bitten, tweezers should be placed as close to the skin as possible. One should try to grab the tick’s head or just above it, and pull upward with a slow and steady motion, trying to avoid breaking it. The bite area should be disinfected afterward with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.

“I do believe in the 24-hour rule, which I believe is scientifically supported,” Mr. Whalen said. “A deer tick or lone star tick has to be in you a minimum period of time, which seems to be 24 hours, before it can infect you.” 

While the C.D.C. recommends wearing both long pants and long-sleeve shirts, Mr. Whalen dismissed the latter suggestion. “If you’re in a tick area, I strongly recommend spraying shoes,” he said. “Much more than you realize, ticks strike your body very low. If you’re in short grass or brush, they will get on at shoe level. Ticks don’t drop from trees and branches. They’re in grass, leaf litter, and low brush. They’ll crawl up a little, roughly knee-high. If you find them higher, it’s because you were on the ground or they’ve crawled up.” 

Eva Moore, president of the trails preservation society, noted that it offers a pamphlet with recommendations for protection from exposure to ticks, which is available by emailing [email protected]. “One of the things I tell people when I’m leading a hike is, when you get home, take your clothes off and put them in the dryer, not the washer, for 10 minutes,” she said. 

Ms. Moore uses DEET, a repellent, to protect herself from ticks outdoors. “You can get them in your own backyard, too,” she said. “The other thing is, stay away from the high grass and bushes.” When hiking, “stay in the middle of the trail.”

After two years without a pastor, the First Baptist Church of Bridgehampton has a live one. And she’s a woman — a first in the church’s recently celebrated 94 years and a rarity in the Baptist church nationally. 

In terms of particulars, the Rev. Tisha Williams hails from the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, holds a certificate from the Princeton Theological Seminary, and is continuing her Christian studies through Grand Canyon University. But spiritually, in the harder-to-pin-down life of the pulpit, where calling and charisma come into play, she’s a natural, as they say in Hollywood. 

A church service may not be a show, involving as it does essential matters of the soul, but when Ms. Williams is front and center before a congregation delivering a message of salvation, it matters very much that she is a vivacious and emphatic communicator of scriptural wisdom. 

The theme of her sermon on Sunday was “You are released,” having to do with a passage in Corinthians in which it says God will put before you only temptations that you can handle, and, what’s more, that he has preordained an escape — if you want it. She drove home the idea with the ultimate metaphor for pointless effort, the caged hamster, a creature that can see freedom on the other side of the glass but requires a hand from above for a lift out of a difficult situation. For us, that means captivity by all manner of afflictions, which Ms. Williams enumerated in a voice rising to a crescendo, drawing claps and shouts of affirmation from the pews: illness, debt, worry, bad relationships — “Say amen when I get to your street!” — depression, alcoholism, even the dispiriting omnipresence of corporate America.

She’s funny, too, invoking Ralph Kramden’s pomposity in “The Honeymooners” to illustrate a point, or letting it be known from the pulpit that, come Family Fun Day on June 10, should any parishioner be moved by the spirit to whip up some potato salad, it would be most appreciated.

Ms. Williams has been leading the church for only the past month and a half. A new experience came just Friday, when a visit to the beach brought an infusion of pastoral creativity. “It’s such a welcome contrast to Brooklyn,” she said. “And the congregation’s been wonderful. I hope to do as much for them as they’ve already done for me.”

She and her husband of 20 years, Deacon Larry Williams, have use of the parsonage across the parking lot from the red brick church, but they drive out from Brooklyn on weekends — Ms. Williams works for Time Warner in the city — and Wednesdays, when she leads Bible study at noon and 7 p.m. (Currently under consideration: “peace in the midst of chaos.”)

One of her first tasks was to design a handsome new circular logo for the church, emphasizing a mission statement in three words: “Connecting, Directing, Protecting.” And she is organizing a conference for July 7 based on a women’s ministry she started called Who’s That Lady? 

“It’s to let women know that they’re not alone, using women from the Bible to talk about sexual assault, for one thing,” she said, citing two victims of rape in the Old Testament, Dinah and Tamar. But it is also about women in commerce, and here she mentioned Lydia, the Apostle Paul’s first convert to Christianity, who was a businesswoman. 

“What women face has been going on forever,” she said. “So we’re going to have a women’s weekend.”

Ms. Williams’s interests are nothing if not various. In biographical material, she referred to herself as a “comic book nerd,” although the nerd part would be open to some debate. 

In the eternal Marvel-DC schism among comic book fans, she sides with the latter. “Ten or 15 years ago a friend introduced me to ‘Identity Crisis’ by Brad Meltzer,” a mini-series that ripped apart the venerable Justice League of America, “and that led me to ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Dark Knight Returns,’ ” two of the most consequential graphic novels of the 1980s, all of them a touch on the sinister side.

In “Dark Knight,” for instance, Superman is reimagined as a terrifying weapon of the United States government, but Ms. Williams likes him for a different reason.

“Everything he does is an exercise in restraint.” If he so much as sneezes he could bring down the house. “And to me it’s like the Jesus story. He chose to be human, to dumb down his divinity. He had the power to call down the angels or come down off the cross, but he chose to make the sacrifice.”

That might not make it into the Man of Steel’s next issue, but it sure sounds like a good sermon.

There’s some blue-sky thinking going on at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton, intended to draw students into decision-making. 

“We wanted our students to have a bigger say in school affairs and take on a more active role in the school community,” said Russell Morgan, the assistant principal, in his office earlier this week.

Seated next to him was Ava Tintle, a self-possessed fifth-grader who is a representative of the school’s inaugural Leadership Council, an 11-member group formed at the start of the school year with the express goal of bolstering student voices. 

“When students feel that their views are being heard, it can be really motivating for them,” Mr. Morgan said. By nature, children are full of ideas, and the assistant principal stressed that one focus of the Leadership Council is to mine ideas that can be “actionable.”

Through a series of prompts during the council’s weekly meetings, overseen and organized by Mike Magee, a fifth-grade teacher, issues are discussed and ideas considered. Opinions then are shared on the Leadership Council’s Google Classroom site, where students are encouraged to weigh in, always using proper grammar and respectful language, said Jeff Tupper, the fifth grade English language arts teacher. Mr. Tupper and Jessica Sinacori, another fifth grade teacher, assist Mr. Magee as the council’s co-facilitators.

One of the changes implemented by the Leadership Council involved lunchtime seating. 

“We always had to sit with our class for lunch,” Ava said, but many students wanted to have the flexibility to sit with their friends instead. So, she said, the Leadership Council pondered the possibilities during its weekly brainstorming sessions and surveyed student opinion. After rounds of ideas were generated, a solution was found and presented to Beth Doyle, the school’s principal, and Mr. Morgan, her deputy.

“Now we have free lunch on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, where we get to sit anywhere we want,” Ava said, of the school’s new policy. “On Thursdays we have to mix it up and take a number and sit at whatever number table that is. And on Fridays, we made a compromise. We sit with our class.”

Research has long suggested that children learn best when teaching is aligned with their natural exuberance, energy, and curiosity. Increased student involvement is fast becoming a highly effectual model for a more cooperative learning environment, which educators believe strengthens students’ commitment to community and democracy. They also have noted that in order to better equip children for the changing demands of the 21st century, old-school, and 19th-century, teaching techniques must be rethought.

Student-centered pedagogy draws from the basic principles of the Reggio Emilia approach, a progressive childhood education movement formed at the end of World War II in Italy that celebrates the child as possessing strong potential for development and who learns and grows into that potential through relationships with others.

Indeed, one such example of student growth through equitable partnerships with John Marshall teachers and administrators is a photography initiative, which came from a Leadership Council request for more opportunities to explore photography during the school day. As a result, a roster of photographically inclined fifth graders was drawn up and a Google form circulated to staffers, who use the form to assign an official student photographer to document in-classroom events, or schoolwide functions such as Family Night and all-school meetings. 

“We wanted to help kids build leadership qualities now,” said Mr. Morgan, recognizing that for these fifth graders the often-tricky years of middle school loom. “This is about character education. How can we foster being a good 10 and 11-year-old?” He hopes doing so will translate to more confident adolescents in middle school. 

Today’s fourth graders at John Marshall are already being prepped to take over the Leadership Council next year. Current council members are charged with showing the younger group how to navigate around Google Classroom and teaching them digital citizenship skills, always under the guidance of the council’s co-facilitators. 

To join the Leadership Council, students are asked to submit a short narrative on “Why I would make a good candidate.” The first elected council runs through the first semester, which is then replaced by a new council during the second half of the academic year.

One criticism often leveled against such leadership-type school councils is that they attract the most confident students and are not fully representative. However, at the elementary school here, members are asked to vote their peers in, and even though teachers have the ultimate say, the system seems to allow for a greater representation of diverse students and opinions. 

Ava, whose teachers said showed such remarkable leadership qualities that she was asked to be on the second council, said her greatest lesson from the experience was one of not being swayed when confronted by different opinions.

“It’s important to stick with what you believe in,” she said, saying that one of her best friends did not agree with mixing up the lunchtime seating schedules. Nevertheless, Ava and others persisted in their campaign and found a solution that seems to please just about everyone.