Education

It’s been two years since the Bridgehampton School established a career and technical diploma track in agriculture, and students in the program now hope to hatch a new animal science program to go along with it.

With a plan they have dubbed “the Hen Hive,” the students want to build a coop and raise chickens.

Monday through Friday, Feb. 7, has been designated the first Waste-Free Lunch Week at the East Hampton Middle School. Students in the school’s Surfrider chapter and student government club are encouraging their peers to trade single-use plastics and packaging for reusable versions when they take their lunches to school.

The goal, according to Charlie Soriano, the principal, is to experiment with “making small changes over the long term.” He called it “an excellent idea on their part.”

Katy Graves, whose last official day as the Sag Harbor School District superintendent was Jan. 6, was named as the new executive director of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center in East Hampton.

Lea Bryant, a health teacher at the East Hampton Middle School, has been named Suffolk County health teacher of the year by the New York State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

“Let’s get together as one, support each other, and create action plans so we can move forward and have an impact on our community,” Bonnie Michelle Cannon, the executive director of the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, told a crowd of more than 200 people before a screening of “Just Mercy” on Saturday at the Regal Cinema in East Hampton.     

A group of parents of Sagaponack School students spent the last several years lobbying the school board to add Bridgehampton as a choice for children in prekindergarten and in fourth grade and up. Their campaign has yielded the outcome they had hoped for.     

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has announced that the cap on tax levy increases for the 2020-21 budget cycle is 1.81 percent, down from 2 percent in the last two years.     

Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor is offering a number of new performance workshops for kids and teens starting in the next few weeks.

The Sag Harbor School Board on Jan. 13 declined to take a formal stance on proposed state legislation that would mandate the human papillomavirus vaccine for students — but not without a discussion of whether or not it is even in the board’s purview to take on such matters.     

Construction crews working at the Sag Harbor Learning Center last spring removed about 300 tons of soil contaminated with arsenic, which school officials said likely seeped into the ground from wood treated with chromated copper arsenate that was thought to exist on the property at one point in time. 

South Fork schools have followed up on a 2019 New York State Education Department mandate requiring schools to test for the presence of mercury vapors in certain types of flooring materials, and documentation provided by the Sag Harbor and East Hampton School Districts this week showed none of the rubberlike floors in their buildings were emitting those harmful vapors.

As Monday is Martin Luther King’s Birthday, the library will take a page from his legacy when it hosts a “diverse book show-and-tell” on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. for all ages.     

The 28th Guild Hall Student Art Festival aims to bring students’ artistic experiences together in a cohesive way.     

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will run free after-school art workshops for children in kindergarten through fifth grade on Mondays and Thursdays from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. starting next week. Participants will learn about various artists and use the work of professionals as inspiration for their own artwork. Advance registration is required at parrishart.org.

Parents interested in more deeply understanding their children have several upcoming opportunities to learn from experts in the fields of education and child development.

There was no official “first flush” fanfare, but instead a simple announcement on Twitter last Thursday that the Springs School had turned on its newly completed innovative/alternative septic system while the students were on winter recess.

Raquel Babb has always loved movies. Some of her favorites depict life in high school in America, and almost always feature cheerleaders. The only problem was that the Ross School, where Raquel studies, hadn’t had a cheerleading team since 2012.

East Hampton School District officials announced Tuesday they have planned a Monday closing date with East Hampton Town for the purchase of the town’s former scavenger waste site on Springs Fireplace Road, which the school district is buying for $2.3 million to build its own bus barn and auto mechanics classroom.

Adam Fine, who has championed school safety, academic growth, and mental and physical health for teens during his 10 years as the East Hampton High School principal, will take over for Richard Burns as superintendent in the 2021-22 school year, the district announced Tuesday.

Adam Fine, who has championed school safety, academic growth, and mental and physical health for teens during his 10 years as the East Hampton High School principal, will take over for Richard Burns as superintendent in the 2021-22 school year, the district announced Tuesday.

Project Most, a nonprofit organization that runs after-school and summer programs for young children, has announced that it will offer Saturday sessions beginning on Jan. 11 at the Neighborhood House in East Hampton. A full nine-week summer camp there is also on the horizon.     

The Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton will have another of its “sensory friendly” mornings on Saturday from 8 to 10.

Applications close on Jan. 6 for multiple adult education teaching and administrative positions at the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

Larrilee Jemiola’s teaching career has spanned about five decades. The veteran East Hampton educator has seen it all — from major shifts in state education policy to movements in social-emotional learning, special needs programs, and support for children who are not native English speakers.

Christmas came early for 10 teachers in the East Hampton and Springs School Districts this year, after the Greater East Hampton Education Foundation announced the winners of its annual grant program earlier this month.

High school students in grades 8 through 12 can submit applications for New York State Summer School of the Arts programs in dance, choral studies, media arts, orchestral instrumentation, visual arts, and theater arts. Auditions begin on Jan. 5 at various state university centers and nonprofit arts centers throughout New York.

Kids can meet the South Fork Natural History Museum’s diamondback terrapins and learn about where they live, what they eat, and how to identify them in a program on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in Bridgehampton. On Sunday families will head outside to search for and identify animal tracks and scat, also at 10:30 a.m.

With the prospect of two full weeks off for the holiday break, kids (and parents) will be relieved to know there are some fun options for active time out of the house.   

The Southampton School District has joined the growing list of schools that have come out against a state proposal to make the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine mandatory for children born after Jan. 1, 2009.

Renovations to the new Sag Harbor Learning Center, formerly the Stella Maris School, will be substantially complete by Dec. 31, but Sag Harbor School District officials have announced that prekindergarten students and staff will not move into the building right away.