Education

Santa Claus will make his rounds around the South Fork this weekend, bringing holiday cheer to kids and adults alike.

High school students take note: The winter holiday season is a great time to earn those community service hours toward high school graduation requirements. Plus: stories and crafts, stop-motion animation, a parody play, and more for kids and teens.

Southampton Town appears to be rethinking its offer of $6 million toward the purchase of land on Marsden Street in Sag Harbor Village in conjunction with the Sag Harbor School District for an athletic field and related amenities.

The Hampton Ballet Theatre School has put on a performance of the classic holiday ballet “The Nutcracker” nearly every year since 2009 — the one exception a byproduct of Covid in 2020 — but this year’s production is the first time in school history that the annual production will feature a pair of real-life siblings in the roles of Clara and her brother Fritz.

Here’s how tight for cash the Wainscott School District is: In October, the tiny district closed the books on the 2021-22 school year having spent nearly every dime in its $3.83 million budget. There was no significant end-of-year surplus to speak of.

The season of sugar and spice has arrived — it’s time to get your gingerbread on. Find activities at the Children's Museum of the East End, the Golden Eagle art store, and other places around town.

The Montauk School Holiday Book Fair, featuring books, gifts, diaries and journals, fun school supplies, and other classic book fair goodies, will begin on Monday and run through Friday, Dec. 2.

The Sag Harbor School District and IBI Group, the architectural firm hired in 2017 to carry out the transformation of the former Stella Maris Regional Catholic School into the Sag Harbor Learning Center, have reached a settlement, following a conflict over how much IBI Group charged for its services during a period in which little to no work took place.

When the federal government doles out dollars to schools, those that receive grants of at least $750,000 find themselves facing an audit at the close of the fiscal year. The Springs School District, one of many across the country in that position during the Covid-19 pandemic, has passed its first such “single audit” with flying colors, according to the district’s auditing firm, EFPR Group.

As a child growing up in Springs, Laura Rosner was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease, an incurable juvenile form of macular degeneration. Now a special education teacher at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton, she has a unique perspective when it comes to educating students with disabilities and diverse educational needs.

Bonac Lights, a fund-raising initiative launched last year by the East Hampton Masons that incorporates holiday light displays, is back again and bigger than before.

An ice maker that produces sludge, desks in disrepair, nonworking generators, chipping paint, an ‘unreliable’ gymnasium partition, worn-out carpeting and wood flooring — these are just a few items on a long list of facilities issues identified by the East Hampton School District this week as urgently in need of attention.

Wildlife explorations with the South Fork Natural History Museum, candle-making and Thanksgiving crafts at local libraries, and a screening of "The Wizard of Oz" at the Sag Harbor Cinema are just a few of the things happening this week for kids and teens.

In the heart of the Shinnecock Indian Nation reservation, a newly renovated clubhouse for kids and teens has been bustling with activity since it opened its doors in April.

Parents who flocked to a meeting about an innovative dual-language program at East Hampton’s John M. Marshall Elementary School, in which children of all language backgrounds spend half their time learning subjects in English and half in Spanish, feared the district was preparing to stop the program after third grade. Instead, the superintendent recommended continuing it.

Kids' movie matinees at the Sag Harbor Cinema, school break programs with Project Most, craft projects for kids of all ages, and more in this week's Kids Culture lineup.

The Sag Harbor School District’s bid to buy five wooded lots on Marsden Street for the purpose of creating new athletic fields passed on Thursday by a vote of 638 to 521. 

The Hayground School’s senior learners spent the last two months as oyster-farming apprentices at the Shinnecock Tribal Hatchery, learning all facets of growing and caring for the bivalves that play a critical role in cleaning South Fork waters and feeding the local economy.

Registered voters in the Sag Harbor School District can cast their ballots Thursday on a proposal allowing the district to spend $3.325 million from its reserve on a land deal that would also involve a separate contribution from Southampton Town’s community preservation fund.

Two serious safety incidents involving students continued this week to concern the community as officials in the Springs and East Hampton School Districts addressed the issues with parents.

The nonprofit South Fork Performing Arts theater company is putting an emphasis on its performers’ triple-threat talents for the first time, with a production of the musical “Chicago: Teen Edition” that opens Friday at LTV Studios in Wainscott.

John King, the Springs School District’s athletic director, pitched a plan on Tuesday to have all of the district’s seventh and eighth graders undergo baseline cognitive testing for the management of potential concussions during school sports, gym class, or other school activities.

Jack Perna, the longtime district superintendent and principal of the Montauk School, has announced that he will retire in June after more than 40 years of service to the district.

With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, local libraries are encouraging teens to express gratitude.

As they prepare for a Nov. 3 vote on the acquisition of five lots off Marsden Street for athletic fields, Sag Harbor School District officials have found themselves countering an onslaught of what they describe as inaccurate and misleading dialogue circulating on social media, on lawn signs, and in private emails among concerned residents.

A teen rendition of "Chicago" plus Project Most activities for preschoolers, arts and crafts, movies, and more.

Across Montauk, young people are rallying around Poppy Heart, a haven, they say, for all  things fun and creative. For some, it's even more than that — it's a safe space with a positive role model and mentor in the shop's owner, Tiffany LaBanca.

Beyond traditional trick-or-treating, kids and teens can take advantage of lots of Halloween events around town over the next few days.

East Hampton Town police on Wednesday arrested a 13-year-old Springs School student who allegedly doctored a photo of another student, turned it into a threat of violence, and posted it on social media. Officers were able to "swiftly" deem it noncredible, according to a press release.

A Springs School student is facing disciplinary consequences after firing a BB gun on an East Hampton Middle School bus returning from a football game at East Moriches on Thursday.