Education

Covid-19 can't stop the Bridgehampton School from growing its agricultural program.

After serving for 20 years as principal at Pierson Middle and High School, and as interim superintendent since mid-March, Jeff Nichols, who led a controversial initiative to bring the International Baccalaureate program to the high school in 2012, will assume the role of Sag Harbor District superintendent.

With school closures extended through the end of the academic year, educators are beginning to consider what the opening of next year might look like.

James Crenshaw, the principal at Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Education's Westhampton Beach Learning Center, is set to be appointed the new principal of East Hampton High School on Tuesday.

State officials do not think it’s possible to reopen schools this year "in a way that would keep our students and educators safe.”

The extensive renovation and expansion at the Bridgehampton School, which was halted for a time because of the pandemic, has been deemed an essential construction project.

The Montauk School is the next on the South Fork to explore a construction project. According to Jack Perna, the superintendent, the district has reached an agreement with an architect, John Tanzi, to replace the school’s three portable classrooms and storage room (which has doubled as a classroom), which date from September 1973. The plans are to install modular rooms that would be more permanent than their predecessors.

Almost universally, high school seniors are lamenting the loss of a special year. "The world changed right when we were born,” said Heidi Bucking, a Pierson High School senior, “and now it’s going to change again right when we’re going to be adults.”

While schools statewide are closed because of Covid-19, their employees are still being paid, but many are saving money in other areas.

Local school boards are still waiting to hear from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo about when school budget votes and the election of board members can take place.

Covid-19 has cast a long shadow over the health care industry, and there’s a sense of trepidation and anxiety among the 65 practical nurses who are graduating Thursday from their Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services program. But there’s also a sense of hope and purpose among the graduates.

Nassau and Suffolk Counties’ Athletic Councils pulled the plug on high school springs sports, a “heartbreaking decision,” in the words of Section VIII’s executive director, Pat Pizzarelli, but one that was not surprising given the coronavirus pandemic.

The world’s top-ranked female triathlete, Katie Zaferes, an Olympic silver-medalist cyclist, Mari Holden, and Ally Friedman, a Ross School senior who in February was cited by the United States Tennis Association as its junior volunteer of the year, mentored Theresa Roden’s I-Tri girls on Saturday.

Chef Jill Hamill has quite the following on YouTube lately. In just a few days, a handful of her cooking videos have racked up hundreds of views and subscribers.

Supplies for Success, a national organization founded 18 years ago and now based in Sagaponack, has handed out thousands of art kits filled with coloring books, crayons, construction paper, washable glue, and other items to help keep children learning and busy during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Proposition 2 in East Hampton

The East Hampton School Board has agreed to add a second proposition to the school budget ballot asking for voter approval to spend $2.2 million from a capital reserve account for a commercial kitchen at East Hampton High School. During a virtual meeting on April 1, board members pointed out that the measure would not increase taxes because the district already has the money set aside.

Challenge for educators: teaching social-emotional learning through a screen.

Because of uncertainty about the resumption of traditional classroom instruction, the New York State Education Department has canceled Regents exams scheduled for June. Students must pass a number of Regents exams, high school-level tests, in order to graduate. 

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last week clarified what “essential” means for contractors, halting most forms of construction through at least April 19 — school construction included. Districts in Springs, Bridgehampton, and Sag Harbor are bumping up against this order.     

Their meetings are not without technical issues, but local school boards have ventured into the world of virtual assemblies and live-streaming on various platforms.     

Arts organizations including the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Bay Street Theater, and the Parrish Art Museum have modified their educational programs for families and children to offer them digitally and free of charge. 

For students who rely on schools to provide nutritious meals each day, there is assistance available locally for breakfast and lunch.

The Sag Harbor School District on Wednesday announced "more than one member of our school community" has been diagnosed with COVID-19, making it the second local school to confirm at least one case.

School districts and day care centers here are answering the governor’s call to help parents and caregivers who are first responders, health care workers, and other essential employees during the COVID-19 response.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo this week ordered schools statewide to close through March 31 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some districts here had already announced plans to close for two weeks. Many administrators believe the closure will be extended.

Eleanor Tritt, the interim superintendent of the Sag Harbor School District, resigned Wednesday from her post.

With the schools closed, many parents have begun navigating the world of homeschooling for the first time, and school districts have begun serving meals to students who take part in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. 

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Sunday afternoon announced in a local emergency order that schools across the county will close for two weeks beginning Monday, March 16.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo waived a key public education mandate on Friday afternoon, saying during a press conference that districts could choose to close if they wished and they would not be penalized for holding fewer than 180 school days.

At the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, Wally the dog will be on hand to read with kids on Saturday at 10 a.m.