Education

The Bridgehampton School District is considered unique among South Fork schools for reasons such as its robust agricultural and robotics programs, its vaunted basketball traditions, free breakfasts and lunches for all children, and the personal attention its students get from teachers thanks to a favorable student-teacher ratio. This year it is also unique in that it is the only local district that will attempt to override the New York State-imposed cap on tax-levy increases.

Representative Lee Zeldin this week announced that the annual Congressional Art Competition is seeking entries from high school students. Entries are due on April 7.

The junior varsity team has begun a 10-day quarantine period after one of its players, a Pierson student who played in Saturday's game with Babylon's jayvee, tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend.

Educators view prekindergarten programs as important in boosting children's social and emotional skills and laying the foundations for academic success. For the 2021-22 school year, at least four local districts are planning to return or ramp up their pre-K offerings into full-day programs.

Local cultural centers and libraries, along with Project Most, have upcoming activities for kids and teens.

Most students on the South Fork have spring break coming up, so here are a few ideas for how they can pass the time with fun and educational activities.

Children at the Sag Harbor Elementary School recently collected 520 boxes of cereal to be donated to food pantries in Sag Harbor and Bridgehampton.

LTV, East Hampton Town's public access station, has announced a new scholarship program "to support community media and free speech." The scholarship is intended for students with a dedication to community, love of media, and belief that all people should have access to accurate and unfiltered information.

The McCoy Bus Company, which has taken Montauk School students back and forth from home to school for at least 25 years, will sell most of its fleet to the district at the end of this school year.

During a board of education budget workshop on Tuesday, Jack Perna, district superintendent and school principal, confirmed that the company will stop busing children in June.

Nomination petitions will be available starting tomorrow for school district residents who are interested in running for open board of education seats. Petitions can be picked up in person from most district clerks' offices, and some schools may even make them available for download on their respective websites.

The Springs School Board on Monday accepted donations from the Tyler Project and from Timothy Croak and Kevin Hogan of Ten Comm, a Long Island technology company.

The Sag Harbor School District has established a new holiday, Indigenous People's Day, on its 2021-22 academic calendar to provide an opportunity for students to learn about and celebrate the original inhabitants of the North American continent, who were here before explorers from Europe colonized America. The holiday will be marked on the calendar as the day before Thanksgiving, when schools are already closed.

The Parrish Art Museum's annual Student Exhibition, a 60-year tradition featuring the work of more than 1,000 young artists, begins tomorrow. More than 200 individual works by high schoolers, and another 70 or so group pieces by younger artists, nursery age on up, from schools across eastern Long Island, will be on view through April 18. Paintings, drawings, sculpture, and photography are featured.

Another round of workshops and academic assistance courses via Project Most’s School Vacation Learning Lab is open to kids as young as 4 years old through fifth graders over spring break, March 29 to April 2. 

Teen Creative Studio at Guild Hall
Through its Teen Arts Council, Guild Hall is offering a monthly creative studio program for high school students. It starts Tuesday with a virtual creative writing and spoken-word jam session with Andrina Wekontash Smith as the guest teaching artist. The program is from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and advance registration at guildhall.org is required. Future programs, including fashion up-cycling and candle-making, will be held in person.

The Sag Harbor School Board is expected to vote Monday on a 2021-22 school calendar that for the first time will include Indigenous People's Day in addition to Columbus Day. Juneteenth will also be officially added to the school calendar, as New York State has designated it an official holiday.

In a pandemic environment that has cost the school district more than $600,000 so far, and against the fiscal pressure of New York State's cap on tax levy increases, East Hampton school officials are holding the line on budget increases wherever possible as they develop their 2021-22 school spending plan.

The Springs School is weighing many moving parts as it develops its 2021-22 spending plan, with anticipated increases in areas such as school busing, custodial services, and bathroom and classroom updates.

With an eye to the realities of remote learning, the Bridgehampton School has recently revisited its absentee policy. Previously, more than 18 absences in a given course was marked as failing that course, but the number has been raised to 30.

On Friday, the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center announced "Valiente.Inteligente.Valioso.Ambicioso," or VIVA, a new Latinx program aimed at "embracing our community with English and Spanish classes, translation assistance, family counseling, and legal services."

If all goes according to plan, by March 15 the vast majority of South Fork students between Montauk and Bridgehampton will be back in school in person, five days a week. The move by several local districts represents a shift back toward what school used to look like, but with the benefit of pandemic hindsight.

Need to find something for the kids to do? Here are some possibilities coming up.

The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office is once again hosting the Say Something Essay Contest for high school students to highlight the importance of speaking up when a peer is distressed or at risk for self-harm.

The Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services is offering an online career workshop with a focus on cultivating a culturally and ethnically diverse community of teachers on the East End.

East Hampton School District officials on Tuesday said it is their goal to restore the full-day prekindergarten program at the John M. Marshall Elementary School. Those classes were reduced to half-days this year because of space restrictions made necessary by the pandemic. The proposed 2021-22 budget provides for such a program.

"The overall consensus from the prekindergarten team is that they would like to go back to full-day," said Karen Kuneth, the interim elementary school principal.

On the Ice
Katy's Courage, an organization dedicated to education, research, and support for pediatric cancer patients, will have an ice-skating fund-raiser at the Buckskill Winter Club in East Hampton on Saturday for kids ages 10 and up. There will be ice-skating lessons starting at 12:15 p.m., open skating sessions at 1:15 and 3, an ice show at 6, and a hockey game at 7:30 that night. Baked goods will be for sale all day. Tickets are $35 each, and Covid-19 restrictions make advance registration a must by calling 631-324-2243.

Project Most, a nonprofit organization that provides after-school, weekend, and summertime activities and enrichment programs for children in East Hampton and Springs, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support field trips.

The Springs School is now enrolling kindergarten students for the 2021-22 school year. Children who are 5 years old on or before Dec. 1 and live in Springs are eligible to sign up for the full-day program.

As Covid-19 case counts and positivity rates continue their general decline, East Hampton School District officials are expected to unveil plans next week to bring more students back for in-person learning.

During a budget workshop this week, Richard Burns, the district superintendent, said there will be a detailed discussion of the plans at a regular board meeting on Tuesday. It will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be live-streamed on YouTube by LTV. There will be an opportunity for community members to call in comments.

Avenues: The World School, a for-profit independent school that set up a small "studio" campus last summer at the Hampton Country Day Camp in East Hampton, this week announced that it will remain there for another school year.