For students who live in East Hampton and who will be 5 on or before Dec. 1, 2013, kindergarten registration begins this week.

    Parents of children in the prekindergarten program at the East Hampton Day Care Learning Center will have the chance to register their children for East Hampton’s kindergarten program tomorrow, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

    Kindergarten registration will also take place on Wednesday outside John Marshall’s main office from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and again next Thursday from 1 to 6 p.m.

    Parents or guardians must bring proof of their child’s age, in the form of a birth certificate or passport, and proof of residency in the district (a deed, lease, or tax bill), as well as a completed immunization record.

Busy Bunny

    Easter is not until the end of the month, but the Easter Bunny will be busy already this weekend. Egg hunts and egg decorating events begin on Saturday in anticipation of the holiday. The first is at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton at 10 a.m. for children 8 and under. It starts with a story time, and then convenes to the library’s lawn, where a floppy-eared friend will be on hand. In case of rain, the hunt will be postponed to March 30.

    Kids in seventh grade and above can drop in at the library during regular hours on Saturday through March 30 to make yarn eggs.

A Very Important Date

    A Mad Hatter Tea Party at the Children’s Museum of the East End on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. will include an outdoor egg scavenger hunt, hat decorating, and spring arts and crafts. There will be complimentary goodies, lemonade, and tea. The party is free for members, and $18 for others.

    On Sunday at 11 a.m., Sima at Sea, a storyteller, will read “Spring Is Singing.” There is no charge for the program, which is sponsored by Cultural Care Au Pair. Drop-in spring break workshops for kids 3 to 5 will be held every weekday next week. Kids will do creative play, cooking, art, and science and nature programs from 9 a.m. to noon. The cost is $80 per day, per child, or $75 for members. Advance registration is required. The museum is on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton.

Egg Scramble

    A mad scramble for eggs is guaranteed on Saturday at 11 a.m. on the nose as the Ladies Village Improvement Society hosts an egg hunt on the grounds of its Main Street, East Hampton, headquarters. The affair is for children 2 to 9, with a separate area specifically for the younger egg finders.

Eggs-Travaganza

    The Montauk Library has promised an “eggs-travaganza” for families, involving games and crafts, on Saturday afternoon from 3 to 4:30. Those who attend have been advised to take a smock or wear clothing they can part with, as things could get messy.

    On Tuesday, Chip Bryant, the Silent Clown, will perform at the library from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m., offering a blend of mime, clowning, juggling, magic, puppetry, and music. Registration has been requested for both programs but is not required.

Coloring Festa

    The Easter Bunny will be on hand Sunday at Cittanuova in East Hampton during the restaurant’s annual Easter Egg Coloring Festa from 9 to 11:30 a.m. There will be eggs galore and coloring materials for kids 3 to 8, and a raffle for some sweet treats. A suggested donation of $3 will benefit the Flying Point Foundation for Autism.

Crafts and Critters

    At the East Hampton Library, workshops throughout the week will help keep the schedule full for kids 4 and older. Who needs a paintbrush? Not the children who take part in Saturday’s workshop, when participants will paint with anything but a brush from 2 to 3 p.m.

    On Monday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., kids can create crazy critters with real grass hair that will grow at home. Sock bunnies and spring cupcake decorating are on the agenda for Friday, March 29, with bunny-making from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and cupcakes from 1:30 to 2:30. For all workshops, kids under 7 must be accompanied by an adult. Bunnies will also be the focus of a story and craft time for kids 4 to 6 on Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. The library has requested advance sign-up for all programs.

So Much to Do

    Some school spring breaks have been done away with, but parents whose children are still on vacation next week can find workshops to keep the kids entertained and engaged at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill and the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, each offered Monday through Friday, March 29.

    The Parrish programs have a different focus each day — spring landscapes, Pop Art, still-life collage, spring printmaking, and garden-inspired sculpture — with sessions for 4 to 6-year-olds from 10 a.m. to noon, and sessions for kids 7 and older from 1 to 3 p.m. The cost is $40 per session or $30 for members. Advance registration required.

    Bay Street will have a kids theater camp for 8 to 12-year-olds from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Karen Hochstedler and Bethany Dellapolla will offer instruction in acting, singing, dance, and more. The cost is $385 per child. Advance registration is required through the theater.

Bluebird Watch

    Land development has left fewer tree cavities for Eastern bluebirds to nest in, but the birds take well to nest boxes like the ones in the field behind the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. On Saturday, before taking 5 to 9-year-olds on a nature walk to observe the bluebirds, Crystal Possehl, a nature educator, will read them a book about a how a bluebird couple build their nest, feed their young, and get ready for winter. Then kids will make their own bluebird nests. The program starts at 10 a.m. Reservations are required, as space is limited.

Congressional Art Competition

    High school art students who plan to submit their work to the annual Congressional Art Competition have until Friday, March 29, to do so. The student submissions, which are coordinated by art teachers, will be included in an exhibit in the Lyceum Gallery at Suffolk Community College’s Montaukett Learning Center in Riverhead on April 5 and 6. The East End Arts Council will curate the exhibit, and a judge will select first, second, and third-place and honorable mention winners. Winners will be announced at a reception on April 6 from 2 to 4 p.m.

    Last year, Nicole Frank of East Hampton High School won for her painting “Abundance.” The winning work this year will be displayed in a yearlong exhibit in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., with other winning pieces from around the country.

    Three parents of Montauk prekindergartners presented the Montauk School Board Tuesday with a petition asking the board to consider piercing the state-imposed 2-percent cap on tax levy increases so that the school can add a third kindergarten class next year and reduce class sizes in all grades.

    The petition, which was signed by 185 people, they said, asked that classes have no more than 18 students in kindergarten through third grade and 20 students in other grades.

    Tom Flight, accompanied by Amy Duryea-Kelly and Paul Tough, an author of “The School of Hard Knocks: How Children Succeed,” delivered the signatures to the board. Diane Hausman, the school board president, said that although the board would accept it, there would be no comment as the meeting was a budget workshop and not a regular board meeting, where community input is on the agenda.

    In a follow-up phone call, however, Ms. Hausman said the board took some offense to the petition, which stated: “Without direct action, the financial planning going into the 2013-14 Montauk School threatens the education of the town’s children at all grade levels.”

    “I take great exception to the word ‘threaten,’ ” Ms. Hausman said yesterday. “This board would never threaten the education of students in the Montauk School.”

    The school board has frequently mentioned that it must take into consideration the senior citizen population by keeping the financial figures within their range. At Tuesday’s meeting, Ms. Duryea-Kelly said 50 percent of the signatures she had collected in front of the Montauk Post Office one day last week were from senior citizens.

    “I was surprised. I thought I’d receive a lot more resistance, but I didn’t,” she told the board, adding afterward that the signers also included young parents.

    The board began discussing increasing class sizes in January. Parents came out in force to urge them not to, saying that larger classes have been proven to reduce the quality of a child’s education. Originally, the board was going vote to change the class size policy from 18 per class with a maximum of 24 to a maximum of 28 students.

    But when they actually voted and approved the resolution, it gave them the flexibility to change class size depending on each individual class and omitted actual numbers. At the time, one board member said that including the numbers seemed to be pitting parents against school officials.

    Prekindergarten classes, which are exempt from the changes, can have no more than 21 students. This year’s pre-K enrollment was so large that students were divided into four classes, with two morning and two afternoon sessions.

    Jack Perna, the school superintendent, and several teachers have gone on record saying they, too, prefer smaller class sizes. “I don’t know what you’re all hearing out there, but I have never veered from a smaller class size,” he said on Tuesday. He explained, however, that adding another class would cost the district at least $150,000.

    Ms. Duryea-Kelly said yesterday that the parents feel as if they’re not being heard and are powerless in the situation. “We feel as if they’re saying, ‘Yes, we hear you, but there’s nothing we can do for you,’ ” she said on the phone.

    The petition also states that the group realizes that piercing the tax cap would mean a “small” increase in taxes. “But this is a critical investment in the future of Montauk,” it reads.

    Mr. Flight offered a tax rate schedule that he said was based on prior tax estimates. With it were applications for the School Tax Relief (STAR) program, which reduces taxes for owner-occupied, primary residences for senior citizens and people whose combined income does not exceed $500,000.

    If the school were to try to pierce the 2-percent cap, the budget would have to be approved by at least 60 percent of voters. If it didn’t pass, it could be put up for a second vote, but if it were voted down again, the school would lose the ability to increase the budget at all for next year. Parents have said they believe they could get enough people to the polls to pass the budget the first time around.

    Moving on, the board combed through the budget for the third time since it was released earlier this month. There have been several changes over the course of the weekly meetings and workshops. One item that was questioned by the board was a $28,000 increase for security measures at the school.

    Mr. Perna pointed to the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut and said he wanted more cameras installed, and possibly a vestibule so that visitors could not enter the school building until they were identified. The price quote was for $30,000, up from $1,700 in last year’s budget. He said that SCAN security had submitted the estimate, but he has since received two other bids that will also be considered.

    A teacher at Tuesday’s meeting asked the board to consider increasing the spending on the curriculum. Sue Nicoletti, who teaches fifth graders, said that teachers are using some textbooks from 12 years ago, mostly in social studies and science. Moreover, teachers need ongoing training. “I just want to make sure you’re aware of it,” she told the board.

    The 2013-14 budget as it now stands carries a $184,000 increase over this year’s budget, bringing it to $18.7 million. The board has until April 23 to adopt its proposed budget. The public budget vote and school board elections will be on May 15.

    At a school board meeting on March 12, Therese Watson announced that she will step down from the seat she has held for 29 years. As of yesterday, no one had filed the petition to run for the vacant seat. Petitions require 25 signatures and must be submitted to the district clerk by April 22. If no one comes forward to run, school officials will have to appoint someone to the board, Mr. Perna said.

Calling Teen Filmmakers

    The East Hampton Library will begin a monthlong teen film contest with a kickoff meeting on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. The contest asks high school students working in teams or on their own to write a script and shoot a short film, music video, animated film, or experimental video, and then submit their finished work by April 30. Films will be screened and awards will be given out on May 1. Advance registration has been requested.

Comic Book Workshop

    Kids 8 and older who love manga and anime can learn to draw in that style during a manga comic book workshop starting April 6 at the Golden Eagle art store in East Hampton. The class will meet for four Saturdays from noon to 1:30 p.m. Participants have been asked to take their own sketchbooks. The cost for all four classes is $120. Advance registration is required.

Mad Scientists

    Young would-be scientists who don’t get the chance to hone their skills at home will be set free during a chemistry workshop on Saturday at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. Tyler Armstrong, a nature educator, will oversee 8 to 10-year-olds as they mix together some safe household chemicals to learn about chemical reactions. Mess-proof clothes are a must. The workshop begins at 11 a.m.; participants must register in advance as space is limited.

    As East End school districts, like others throughout the state, concentrate on preparing budgets for the next academic year, which are to be presented to voters in May, momentum has lapsed on the exploration of school consolidation. Initial discussions among school leaders,  begun a year ago, held great promise and the potential for compromise. But, as Jack Perna, superintendent of the Montauk School District, said this week, “Here we go again.” 

    The idea behind school consolidation is that small districts lack economies of scale and that by combining resources schools would operate with more efficiency and cost savings, as well as added resources. But while some school districts would see a lower tax rate, others would see a significant increase. As a result, the opinion among school officials remains in a virtual deadlock.

    Officials from the Springs, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Montauk, Tuckahoe, and Southampton districts, as well as the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, joined forces a year ago to apply for a $220,000 grant through the state’s Local Government Efficiency Program to study potential reorganization. It was a significant step in a direction that proponents of consolidation describe as badly needed, especially during a time when budgets are shrinking and districts face a 2-percent cap on increases in tax levies.

    The grant would have explored a wide array of options — from sharing services to the wholesale consolidation of some of the districts in the hope of improving the quality of instruction while reducing costs and saving taxpayer dollars.

    But in October, word came from Albany that the East End grant had been denied, with state officials saying the application was too broad and lacked specificity. Three months later, district leaders sat down with state officials and were urged to reapply in time for this year’s March 13 deadline.

    While representatives of most of the districts that were among the original grant applicants, and the Bridgehampton district as well, attended the meeting, East Hampton and Montauk declined to participate. Mid-March came and went, with districts citing the impossibly quick turnaround during a time of year that coincides with budget preparation.

    “There was suddenly two weeks to take it apart and resubmit it. It was too short a time frame,” said Michael Hartner, the former superintendent of Springs, who participated in the planning meeting. Now retired, he was the lead author on last year’s application. “No one was stepping forward to say, ‘I’ll spend the next two weeks doing nothing else to get it done.’ ”

    Some officials are now questioning what a formal study would achieve. In recent weeks, as Bridgehampton is weighing whether to participate, East Hampton and Montauk have opted out.

    At last week’s East Hampton School Board meeting, George Aman, board president, said that while the board was willing to consider shared services, it was not planning to reinvest in what he termed a “costly study.” Even though the state would fund the bulk of the more than $200,000 study, each district would be required to contribute nearly $3,000.

    “We’re doing everyone a disservice if we put aside the idea of consolidation,” Arthur Goldman, a teacher at East Hampton High School and a Springs resident, said at last week’s meeting. “The board has to take a leadership role here.” Board members appeared unmoved. The board will consider shared services, but participating in a study seems unlikely.

    “If you were starting from scratch, we would all be one district. That would make sense,” Mr. Aman said. “The difficulty is that once they are established, in small school districts particularly, people are very happy with the status quo. And human nature being what it is, folks are not going to give up their local control to absorb someone else’s higher tax rate.”

    Multiple calls to the East Hampton district’s superintendent, Richard J. Burns, were not returned.

    “This state isn’t going to be able to support 700 school districts going forward,” said Mary Anne Miller, a Sag Harbor School Board member and former board president. She expressed disappointment that the March deadline to reapply had come and gone. “The end is coming soon. We should be talking about this much more aggressively. Our job as board members is to push this kind of uncomfortable discussion on the community.”

    Dowling College conducted a formal study of consolidation in 1998, looking at East Hampton, Montauk, Springs, and Amagansett. The conclusion was that only taxpayers in Springs stood to benefit, while taxpayers in Amagansett were likely to see their tax rates rise by as much as 50 percent. More than 15 years later, such a conclusion still holds.

    “We have been involved with studies over the years and the topic of consolidation has been discussed many times over many years,” said Eleanor Tritt, the superintendent of Amagansett School District. The district, which operates one school, enrolls 110 students in grades pre-K to 6 and sends students to East Hampton schools from the seventh grade through high school.

    “For Amagansett, the results consistently show that consolidation would cause the tax rate in Amagansett to rise significantly,” Ms. Tritt said. Even though she thinks consolidation remains unpalatable, she said she remained a staunch advocate for sharing services whenever possible.

    Stuart Rachlin, the superintendent of the Wainscott School, similarly expressed disinterest in consolidation. “When you have a small district such as Wainscott and the tax rate is so low, if you consolidate, the tax rate will go up,” Dr. Rachlin said. The Wainscott School enrolls 15 students in kindergarten through third grade.

    Carl Bonuso, the superintendent of the Sag Harbor district, remained cautiously optimistic, however. He said an opportunity for a wide coalition of districts to again reapply for grant money was a possibility.

    Regardless of whether a study was done, however, he said shared services were soon to become an increasing reality for all local districts — grant or no grant.

     “As we develop our budgets, the only way we can survive is to concentrate on the expenditure side and be more creative at looking at the revenue side of the equation. Sharing services is one way of dealing with the revenue side,” Dr. Bonuso said.

    He described the East End districts as having a family-like quality, like different households working to help each other. “It just makes sense to work together,” he said.

    “Consolidation is the word everyone is hung up on,” said Kathee Burke Gonzalez, the Springs School Board president, offering that the word reorganization might be more acceptable. Ms. Burke Gonzalez, who will step down from her position this spring, is hopeful that come summer everyone will come back to the conversation with fresh eyes and a new perspective.

    “New boards and superintendents will have a bit more free time than they do in February and March to sit down and figure out exactly what it is they want to study,” she said. “I’m hopeful that once everyone’s budget passes, they can all come up for air and pursue the conversation once again.”

Shakespeare a la Hayground

    Students from the Hayground School in Bridgehampton will perform a lesser-known Shakespeare romance, “Cymbeline,” today at 1 and 6 p.m. at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor.

    The performances are the culmination of the school’s annual Shakespeare residency program, which brings acting teachers and directors from Shakespeare & Co. in Lennox, Mass., to Bridgehampton each winter to immerse students in Elizabethan life. The production features not only student performers but costumes, sets, props, sound, lights, playbill, makeup, publicity, and photos and video created by students, teachers, and parents.

    The play is “an epic adventure story,” according to the school, about Imogen, a resourceful princess who marries poor Posthumous despite her father’s objections, only to see him banished to the Welsh countryside. Her search for him is a tale “punctuated with colorful characters, jealousy, deception, sword fights, cross-dressing, and sleeping potions,” the school wrote.

    The performances are open to all. Tickets cost $10.

Student Art at the Parrish

    The Parrish Art Museum’s 2013 Student Exhibition, an extravaganza of art by kids from all over the East End, will open tomorrow in Water Mill with a celebration for family and friends from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. honoring the work of the elementary school-level contributors.

    The show includes group projects by kindergartners through eighth graders and individual and group projects by high school artists. The high school artists will get the spotlight during a celebration on Feb. 9. The show will be up through March 3.

Happy Hearts

    Valentine’s Day may be a couple of weeks away, but at this time of year having something to look forward to can make a young heart soar.

    The East Hampton Day Care Learning Center’s Happy Hearts Valentine’s party isn’t until Feb. 9, but organizers have asked for reservations by Wednesday. The party will begin at 11 a.m. with a magic show by Bruce Majic. Valentine’s arts and crafts projects, cookie and cupcake decorating, and games will follow until 1 p.m., and refreshments will be available. The party is free, although donations will be accepted.

    Those who plan to partake in the fun have been asked to call the center, which is on Gingerbread Lane Extension, or e-mail [email protected].

The Word

    Montauk middle school students will read their own poems, as well as those of other students and poets, and recite memorized works during a poetry event called “Word Up!” next Thursday at 7 p.m. at Guild Hall. The program grew out of the students’ work with professional poets who have been coaching them on writing, revising, and presenting their own original work. There is no charge to attend.

Love and Books

    A story and craft time at the East Hampton Library on Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. will have Valentine’s Day as its theme, giving kids from 4 to 6 a chance to turn their thoughts to cupids and hearts and all things sweet.

    Older kids in fifth through eighth grades can indulge their love of books as part of a book club for young teens meeting next Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m. The first book to be discussed will be Sharon M. Draper’s novel “Out of My Mind.” Copies can be reserved in the children’s room or by e-mailing [email protected]. Refreshments will be served.

Not by the Hair . . .

    “The Three Pigs,” as interpreted by Wonderspark Puppets, will blow the house down on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor. The visiting troupe was founded by the husband-and-wife team of Chad Williams and Lindsey Briggs and performs in the New York City area, upstate, in Connecticut and New Jersey, and on Long Island.

    Tickets to their Sag Harbor shows cost $10, $9 for members and grandparents, and $5 for children under 3.

Happy Birthday, Amelia

    A 50th birthday bash for the Amelia Bedelia book series will pay tribute to the title character’s playful spirit and cheerful personality on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. The party, for kids 3 and up, will include games, crafts, and snacks. Advance registration with the library has been requested.

Workshops for Teen Writers

    Teen writers will have a chance to work with professional, published writers in two creative writing workshops run by the Young American Writers Project at Stony Brook Southampton during the winter break. The first runs from Feb. 18 through 22, the second from March 25 through 29. The registration deadline for the first workshop is Friday, Feb. 8.

    Both sessions will guide student writers as they develop their fiction, poetry, and personal essay skills. By the end of the week, participants will have produced several pieces of completed writing. The March workshop will focus on creative writing. Classes meet from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day and cost $525, although partial scholarships are available.

    The Young American Writers Project was established and is sponsored by Stony Brook Southampton’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing and literature and is “dedicated to mentoring young people in the development of creative expression and critical thinking through writing,” according to a release.

    Students who participate in either workshop will be eligible to have their writing published in the YAWP E-zine and for presentation in a program at Stony Brook Southampton in April. Registration details can be found online at youngamericanwritersproject.com or by e-mailing [email protected].

Meet the Animals

    Families with children 6 and older can tour the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton on Saturday at 10 a.m. The tour offers a chance to meet some of the animals in residence there. Advance registration has been requested.

    From now until April, the East Hampton School Board will convene work sessions to go over drafts of the 2013-14 district budget in exacting, line-by-line detail.

    The purpose of the meetings is to provide transparency and openness to a process that for many outsiders can be difficult, if not impossible, to follow. While the public has been invited to attend, they are not allowed to comment. On Tuesday night, the board kicked off its inaugural work session for the upcoming budget season.

    Besides two members of the press, no one who was not an employee of the district was present. Copies of the draft budget, which right now calls for $65 million in spending, and of the documents being discussed by speakers were unavailable to those attending Tuesday night’s meeting. A reporter’s request for the documents was denied.

    “When the document is a little more solid, we will give it to the public,” Isabel Madison, assistant superintendent for business, said to the board, referring to the preliminary budget.

    During the meeting, Ms. Madison walked members of the board through budget items related to the superintendent’s office, the district’s projected legal costs, support services related to the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, and items pertaining to custodial costs and plant management at each of the district’s three schools.

    Richard J. Burns, the district superintendent, further clarified a more than $55,000 increase in projected legal costs for the upcoming school year.

    “It’s not for Sandpebble,” he said, referring to the ongoing lawsuit between the district and Sandpebble Builders over a multimillion-dollar school construction contract that dates back to April of 2002, “it’s for special education.”

    Ms. Madison later said: “Special education is costing us more than we want. It’s all being spent on one case, almost all on one case.”

    While the district had budgeted $30,000 for legal services related to special education in the 2012-13 budget, the first draft of the 2013-14 budget proposes adding another $60,000 for special education — bringing the final figure to $90,000.

    Later in the evening, custodians at the John M. Marshall Elementary, East Hampton Middle School, and East Hampton High School all made presentations to the board regarding their budget items for next year.

    Budget numbers will be honed and finalized over the next three months. Additional budget work sessions are planned for Feb. 12 and 26, March 21, and April 9. The meetings begin 6 p.m. in the district office at the high school.

    The East End Arts School in Riverhead has been chosen to take part in the Royal Conservatory Music Development Program as a “founding school candidate and assessment center,” according to a release from the not-for-profit school and art gallery.

    As an assessment center, the school will offer preparatory courses for those on eastern Long Island looking to participate in the development program, which involves 150 organizations promoting national standards for music education and consistent quality in teaching that emphasizes both theory and performance.

    An information session open to parents and students will be held on Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at East End Arts, at 141 East Main Street in Riverhead. Registration and more information are with Steve Watson, the group’s education director, at 369-2171.

Theory assessments will take place on May 11 and May 12, performance assessments on May 22, and sessions to help students of all skill levels prepare for them will be held in the spring. More details are on the group’s Web site.

Building a Portfolio

    Linda Capello, accompanied by Dorene Quinn, a professor at the State University at Oswego and Pratt Institute, and Yvonne Buchanan, an illustrator and professor at Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, will give a four-session course in building an art portfolio for college admission at Guild Hall in East Hampton, beginning next Thursday.

    The cost for the four hour-long workshops, from 5 to 6 p.m., is $90, or $80 for the children of Guild Hall members. Registration in advance is with the Guild Hall main office.

Tree Secrets at SoFo

    Children 5 and up will learn about trees in a program at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton on Saturday at 1 p.m. The program, which is called “Do Trees Sleep,” will be given by Tyler Armstrong, the museum’s nature educator, and will include a walk outside to see how trees survive the winter and get ready to grow again once the weather warms.

    The cost is $5 for each child, which includes admission to the exhibits. Reservations have been suggested.

Roll Up Your Sleeves

    Budding clay artists have been invited to get their hands dirty in a pottery workshop at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, Saturdays through March 23 at 2 p.m. Open to those 7 and up, the cost is $120 or $90 for the children of museum members.

Spring Theater Programs

    Stages, a children’s theater workshop, has announced an after-school program for children from 8 to 18 at the Southampton Town Recreation Center on Major’s Path. Students will attend rehearsals on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, beginning next week, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. through April. The company will present a musical, to be determined, from May 3 to May 5 at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor. The cost is $475.

    A creative drama workshop for children 6 to 10 will meet at the recreation center on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. The cost is $275. Registration details for both programs are available at stagesworkshop.org.

Bay Street Camp

    Susan Galardi and Bethany Dellapolla will lead a week-long kids vacation camp at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor starting on March 25. Registration is being taken now for the $385 five-day program, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Exercises will include acting, singing, dance, and comedy. According to the theater, the camp generally fills up, so early reservations have been advised. The box office can be phoned with questions.

Early Deadline for Music

    Hamptons Music Camp’s summer 2013 early registration deadline is tomorrow. Applications are being accepted for students who would like to take part in a program from Aug. 5 to Aug. 16 with instructors from several top conservatories, including Juilliard and the Royal Academy of Music.

    Private lessons for everyone from beginners to proficient performers will be available. One program, a world-music listening class, will expose students to many of the globe’s traditions. Morning yoga and movement classes will get the day started. There will also be courses in composition, music theory, and improvisation, among others.

    Classes will be held in Hoie Hall at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lunch and snacks will be provided. Application information can be found at hamptonsmusic.org. There is a registration fee of $80, which is nonrefundable. Tuition for the two-week program is $2,100, for one week $1,200.

    On Tuesday night, the East Hampton School Board convened the third of five budget workshops planned for the 2013-14 academic year.

    According to preliminary figures, while the high school’s budget is slated to decrease by nearly $25,000 from last year’s budget of $388,000, the district’s physical education, driver’s education, health, and athletic budget will see a $10,000 increase over last year of more than $1 million.

    Taken together, the preliminary 2013-14 budget calls for more than $65 million in spending.

    At the start of Tuesday’s meeting, Isabel Madison, the assistant superintendent of business, indicated that while a lot of moving pieces still remained, about $600,000 would likely need to be shaved from the budget before all is said and done.

     “There will for sure be cuts,” Jackie Lowey, a board member, later affirmed. “The question remains, could 10 percent be cut from each budget without slicing into crucial programs?”

    The purpose of the workshops, during which board members pore over budgetary items in line-by-line detail, is to provide transparency and openness to a process that can be difficult for outsiders to follow. The public, while invited to attend, cannot comment or ask questions. So far, not one member of the public has showed up. 

    But lacking sufficient documents, the already granular discussion becomes nearly impossible to grasp.

    At the first workshop, in late January, copies of the documents being discussed were withheld from audience members. At the next one, in mid-February, detailed documents related to the elementary school and middle school’s budgets were provided — with the latter stretching to more than 100 pages.

    But on Tuesday night, the board again reversed its course. While it provided audience members with documents, they were not the line-by-line items that board members received, once again making the discussion almost impossible to decipher.

    Adam Fine, the high school principal, presented his budget, while Joe Vas, the district’s athletic director, answered questions related to his.

    “If we had to say we needed to cut 10 or 15 or 20 percent from your budget, could we do it?” asked Ms. Lowey.

    “Yes,” said Mr. Fine. “If need be, we could even cut more.”

    Already, the high school plans to phase out its American Sign Language program, and board members discussed the possibility of doing the same with Chinese, which would ultimately provide a savings of $10,000.

    “It doesn’t seem like a lot to save for a language of the future,” said Alison Anderson, a board member. Subsequently, the board discussed the possibility of sending East Hampton students to the Ross School for Chinese instruction. Ross requires Mandarin throughout its K-12 program.

    As Mr. Vas approached the podium, Ms. Lowey remarked that “there are like-to-haves and need-to-haves in this budget. You are going to have to cut this budget. It’s not going to stand as is.”

    The disputed items included $10,000 for the Bonac on Board to Wellness, a health and fitness program; $2,000 on school uniforms, and nearly $10,000 on new sports benches, among several others.

    Also at issue was whether or not to continue the driver’s education program. Rather than eliminating it, Ms. Anderson spoke of making it a paid program. “We’re the only school on Long Island to offer it at all,” she said, urging that the board revisit it at a later date. Liz Pucci, a board member, asked that driver’s ed be discussed at next week’s board meeting, “so that parents can hear it.”

    In the coming weeks, two additional workshops are planned for March 21 and April 9. The meetings begin promptly at 6 p.m. in the district office, at the high school on Long Lane.