Education

The Sag Harbor School District adopted its $44.87 million budget for 2021-22 in a quick virtual meeting last week that did not require the board's further discussion of the spending plan, which is under the tax cap for the 10th year in a row.

"It seems like we're in a very good place right now," Barbara Dayton, the Springs School Board president, said on Monday just before she and her colleagues voted to put a $30.8 million budget proposal on the May 18 school ballot for the 2021-22 academic year.

Saturday marks the launch of Suffolk's Stop-Arm Camera Program, which will outfit fleets of school buses across the county with technology to enforce a law commonly violated by drivers: that they stop for stopped school buses with flashing lights.

On the May 18 ballot for the Wainscott School District, voters will see a $3,829,017 spending plan that stays within the state-mandated limit on tax-levy increases. The district's tax-cap compliance comes on the heels of two prior years of over-the-cap budgets.

On May 18, East Hampton School District voters will have a chance to weigh in on a $75.16 million spending plan for the 2021-22 school year. The school board voted Tuesday night to adopt that budget, which carries a year-over-year spending increase of $1.28 million.

The associated tax-levy increase is within state limits at 2.87 percent, which is the maximum amount East Hampton could institute while still only needing a simple majority of voter approval.

On the Amagansett School's budget ballot in May will be an $11.9 million spending plan, up 4.7 percent from the current year, plus two  propositions, one seeking voter approval to use $150,000 from a reserve account to renovate the outdoor basketball courts; the other asking for permission to create a new reserve account dedicated to technology and energy upgrades.

Twenty-one senior educators have applied for the superintendent's post in the Bridgehampton School District, its school board confirmed last week. The number of applicants represents an increase of 20 candidates from the district's last superintendent selection process in 2017 and 2018, for which an open search was not conducted.

The Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services is coordinating the search for the district, having posted the job on March 1 and closed the application period on March 26.

The East Hampton School Board on Tuesday signed on to a joint agreement among a dozen public school districts for legal representation in an asbestos-related lawsuit. The district will employ Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard, and Smith L.L.P. at a rate that breaks down to less than $20 per hour per district.

To celebrate Earth Day, children at the John M. Marshall Elementary School decorated paper bags that will be distributed to customers of Mary's Marvelous and Stop and Shop today. The students were taught about the importance of community service in the process.

"Kids made the bags to make our East Hampton community aware of Earth Day and hopefully encourage people to do something to help our Earth," said Karen Kuneth, the school's principal.

Golden Eagle Once More

Youth art classes have officially returned at the Golden Eagle art supply store in East Hampton after a pandemic-related hiatus. Snap School, a cellphone photography workshop for kids ages 12 and up, runs Saturday mornings in May starting May 8 via Zoom and continues in June in person in the store's art barn. The cost is $295.

East Hampton High School's Justice League club is acknowledging definite victories during uncertain times in a new initiative celebrating students and "bringing out their best."

The Montauk School District will present voters with a $20.59 million budget plan for the 2021-22 school year that shows an overall drop in spending and the smallest tax-levy increase in the region. The school board voted unanimously to adopt the proposal on April 13.

Five candidates are seeking three seats on the Bridgehampton School Board and two candidates are vying for one seat on the Springs School Board this spring in the only two locally contested races. The vote is on May 18.

Shay Siegel and Mai Ismail have something in common: writing poetry. Ms. Siegel is a young-adult author and Mai is a high school student who hopes someday to publish her work, but they both use poetry as an outlet for expressing emotions that can often be difficult.

Here's what's happening locally for kids and teens this week.

For the 10th year in a row, the Sag Harbor School District is proposing a spending plan that stays under the state-mandated cap on tax levy increases while maintaining all programs, services, and extracurricular activities and sports.

On the table is a $44.87 million budget for 2021-22. The projected tax levy is $40.32 million, a 1.48-percent increase from this year, but still slightly under the levy limit. Year over year, the budget would increase by 1.22 percent.

 Springs School officials released updated 2021-22 budget projections during Monday's school board work session. Among the highlights was the news that this year's projected tax levy increase has been trimmed from 3.91 percent down to 2.61 percent — still within state limits on tax-levy increases — although that number is not yet set in stone.

This year, high school seniors can expect graduation ceremonies that inch closer to the traditional norms of past years, thanks to new guidelines announced by New York's governor on Monday which expand capacity over 2020's limitations.

The LongHouse Reserve, Amber Waves Farm, the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, and Duck Creek Farm are among the places that Springs School students will likely visit in the coming months, as field trips appear to be on the horizon once again.

The East Hampton Middle School has a new face, sort of, in the principal's office. Adam Fine, who was East Hampton High School principal for 10 years and is now the assistant district superintendent, is filling in for Charles Soriano, who is out on medical leave through the end of the school year.

The Children's Museum of the East End is opening up more hours for more fun, and other activities coming up for kids and teens.

For the first time in its 12-year history of offering prekindergarten, the Sag Harbor School District will offer a full-day program next year. Parents of incoming prekindergarten students in Sag Harbor will have the opportunity next Thursday to learn all about it.

East Hampton High School students have been busy networking with and learning job-oriented skills from professionals through the school's partnership with Career and Employment Options, a company focused on boosting opportunities for students of all learning levels, including those with disabilities.

Over the next several weeks, the Montauk School has activities promoting well-being lined up for each grade, starting this week with the eighth grade all the way down through prekindergarten during the first week of June.

Normally, Wellness Week was to happen all at once, Montauk teachers explained in an announcement, but Covid-19 forced them to make some changes to the program.

High school students are invited to enter the East Hampton Library's poetry contest in celebration of National Poetry Month in April.

Poetry submissions can be emailed to [email protected] with the subject line "YA Poetry Contest" and the student's name, school, grade, and phone number.

The competition will culminate on April 25 with a reading session led by Shay Siegel, a local poet and author who writes for young adult audiences.

A 3-0 win over Miller Place Monday night put East Hampton at 8-1-1, with a good chance at winning or sharing a league title.

East Hampton's girls cross country team could well win another county title later this month. Results were mixed for the girls field hockey, volleyball, and tennis teams.

Fourth graders at John M. Marshall Elementary School celebrated both Black History Month and Women’s History Month by studying nonfiction writing and recreating in person some of the most famous characters from world history, from Amelia Earhart to Muhammed Ali and Galileo to Anne Frank.

"As teachers we encourage students to research individuals who they have not heard of before, or individuals who lived during a time period of interest," the fourth grade teachers wrote in an email. "We also tried to steer the students towards individuals who impacted the world in some way."

East Hampton High's golf team began the season Friday with two wins. Its football team fell short on Friday, and its boys vollebyall team, as of Monday had yet to get its starting lineup on the floor, due to quarantines in its own ranks and among the teams it was supposed to play.

As New York State officials press the federal government for a waiver that would allow schools to skip standardized tests for the second year in a row, administrators here are busy preparing to give the tests, just in case the waiver doesn’t come through.