More than half of the Springs School’s students are receiving Medicaid or SNAP benefits, allowing the district to qualify for federal financial assistance to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students as well as other grant opportunities for the cash-strapped school district.
Debra Winter, the district superintendent, made the announcement on Dec. 12, saying that 51 percent of the approximately 700 students at Springs are receiving benefits through those federal programs. For the program entitling all students to free breakfasts and lunches — a program in use in the East Hampton and Bridgehampton school districts, as well — the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service requires school districts to show that at least 25 percent of children fall into this category.
The process, known as “direct certification,” allows Springs to circumvent the otherwise painstaking process of asking families to fill out the usual paperwork for free or reduced-price lunches.
“Now comes the hard part,” Ms. Winter told the school board. “We don’t have a cafeteria and proper refrigeration.”
She said the administration is exploring acquiring a refrigerated food truck. “We have to figure out how to fund that,” she said.
In other Springs School Board news, the announcement of a new superintendent to succeed Ms. Winter could come as early as January. “We are in the selecting phase, and that still will take a little bit to wrap things up,” said Barbara Dayton, the board president.
Erik Frederickson, the board’s vice president, thanked the many parents and teachers who served on the committees that screened candidates. “This was a great process, and I think we’re going to be really thrilled with what we have coming out of it,” he said.
Two therapists, Patricia Philipbar and Whitney Reidlinger, pitched the creation of a new, “proper pre-vocational training program” for special education students that would allow them “to experience real-life workplace situations.” The idea is for the students to learn how to create items that other students would be interested in buying. One special education classroom would be adapted to serve as the “store,” which would be dubbed the SOAR Center (echoing the school’s osprey-theme motto and ethics code).
“This project will promote inclusion and acceptance of our students with complex learning challenges and increase their self-confidence and self-esteem, all while providing the school community with a worthwhile and enjoyable service,” said Ms. Philipbar and Ms. Reidlinger in their presentation.
The school board also accepted donations from the East Hampton Educational Foundation, one for $2,000 to buy new microscopes for the seventh-grade science classroom, and another for $1,998 to fund Springs News, a morning announcement initiative. Sondra Vecchio and Frank Cole, respectively, are the faculty members who applied for and received the grants.
“It’s always wonderful to see our teachers go for these grants, and the East Hampton Educational Foundation has been so generous to us over the years and allowed us to really take advantage and bring more great things to our kids, so we really do appreciate that,” Ms. Dayton said.