Education

Halloween parades, spooky family fun, tricks, and lots of treats are in store this week in the lead-up to Halloween festivities on Tuesday.

Festivals, book clubs, arts and crafts, movies, and more coming up for kids and teens this week.

The Springs School girls tennis team poured hard work, dedication, spirit, and diligence into its season this year.

Facing continued criticism from teaching assistants over what they say are unfairly low salaries — wages they also say were lowered without warning this year — the Springs School District has begun negotiating raises with the teaching assistants’ union, a year ahead of the usual schedule, while also performing a full audit of employee payroll.

At the East Hampton Middle School, the 471 brand-new lockers that were installed in September — replacing ones that were half the size and at least 40 years old — have gotten top grades from the students themselves.

The Amagansett School has received top marks on its annual financial review, according to EFPR Group, the district’s outside auditing company.

The Neo-Political Cowgirls will present student workshops and performances of “The Dreamer,” a version of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” told through the perspective of a young girl, starting Monday and running through Friday, Oct. 27. Plus: dance, crafts, video games, and more coming up for kids and teens.

It isn’t quite time for trick-or-treating just yet, but the Halloween fun has already begun with parties, movies, crafts, and other activities for kids of all ages.

Springs School students report the news.

The East Hampton Town Police Department has given the all-clear signal at the Amagansett School after a bomb threat was received by email just before 9 a.m. Wednesday. The school — where the day's classes were just beginning — was immediately evacuated, police said in a release.

Seth Turner, the superintendent of the Amagansett School District for the last five years, has resigned "effective immediately," the district announced Wednesday night.

In the wake of the deadly coach bus crash that killed two Farmingdale School District staff members and wounded many of the students on the bus on Sept. 21, the East Hampton School District on Tuesday said it intends to create a policy to ensure the safety of its own students who board coach buses for school trips. The district's annual financial audit was also discussed, as was an expansion of the free school lunch program.

Epic Martial Arts will hold free self-defense classes for girls on Monday and Oct. 23 and Nov. 6 at its Sag Harbor studio. There's much more in store for kids and teens this week, too.

Two sixth-grade members of the Springs School Journalism Club, Siena Dion and Coral Borsack, recently came up with the idea to create a new logo for the club.

During the Parrish Art Museum’s free Harvest Welcome Day on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., families will have a chance to tour the galleries and take part in a community art project and art workshops and activities throughout the day.

Coming up this week for kids and teens: a celebration of the Long Pond Greenbelt at the South Fork Natural History Museum, free arts and crafts workshops at local ibraries, and open gym nights sponsored by the East Hampton Town Recreation Department .

Francisco Vazquez, a Springs School sixth grader, has had his big break. Recently, he was on the radio with WLNG talking about winning an environmentalism and earth video contest the focus of which was keeping East Hampton clean.

Eastern Suffolk BOCES is set to receive about $4.6 million from New York State to create a pipeline of candidates qualified to go on to special education teaching careers in East End schools. 

Fall on the East End means apples, pumpkins, corn, and sunflowers are in season, and there are plenty of ways for kids and families to enjoy them.

Buoyed by advice from a neighbor, members of the Springs School Board opted Tuesday to embark on a search for their next superintendent themselves, rather than hire a consulting firm to do it for them. 

Ron White, the former president of the Bridgehampton School Board who also served as the varsity boys basketball head coach for six years, is stepping down from the board, according to a meeting agenda put out by the school on Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday afternoon, the United States Department of Education announced that the Amagansett School has been named a National Blue Ribbon School, a prestigious and difficult-to-obtain honor that is based largely on students’ academic performance. Though there was applause, the announcement did little to ease the tension in the room at a board meeting later in the day, as it quickly became apparent that parents and teachers had come prepared with pointed questions about how school operations have been running lately.

The A&G Dance Company has returned to the Southampton Cultural Center for another year of dance and art education. Plus: a baby-gear swap at CMEE, art and STEM projects, kids' movies, and more.

The Journalism Club is back in session at the Springs School, and a new assistant principal has arrived: Springs students report the news.

Every morning, thanks to a new policy enacted for the start of the academic year, pupils at Pierson Middle and High School slip their cellphones into pouches that are then magnetically sealed, preventing the students from using their phones during the school day. “Yondr appears to be cutting down on the number of distractions to learning,” said Anthony Chase Mallia, the president of the faculty union, the Teachers Association of Sag Harbor, during Monday's school board meeting. Students are “getting more done in groups” and are “actually talking to one another again in the hallways and lunch room.”

One of the most popular events of the year at the Children’s Museum of the East End, Big Truck Day, is planned for Saturday, Sept. 30. Space is limited and early registration is encouraged online at cmee.org. Plus: book clubs, reptiles visiting the library, theater performances, arts and crafts, and more.

The Springs School is having trouble attracting and retaining teaching assistants despite the entry-level qualifications, and despite a $200-per-college-credit bonus, paid to teaching assistants who choose to pursue higher education.

An audit released Friday by the New York State Comptroller's office identified potential areas of weakness in the East Hampton School District's information technology practices, noting that a potential "risk of unauthorized access, lost data, and inability to recover from a network disruption" could occur. District officials, who agreed with certain parts of the auditors' findings and disagreed with others, said Monday that they welcomed the analysis and are viewing it through a constructive lens.

The John Jermain Memorial Library has two reading challenges for young patrons. Plus: tons of arts-and-crafts sessions, story time, movies, and more for kids and teens.

Joining the anonymous donor who gave $54,500 last month so the cash-strapped Wainscott School could restore art, music, gym, and technology classes, several more community members have stepped up, collectively giving about $23,000, also anonymously, so the district can add field trips back to the curriculum.