Education

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.   

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.     

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.

Melanie Freyre was bursting at the seams with news she couldn’t share for months: The Bonnettes, a group of East Hampton Middle School singers under her direction, had been chosen to sing in the “Sounds of Christmas” performance series at Radio City Music Hall. They’d be an opening act for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which features, of course, the iconic Rockettes.     

On light of the difficulty in making and receiving calls, the Springs School Board weighed updating policy to allow students and staff to use the school's Wi-Fi network for personal reasons during lunchtime and other breaks, specifically because cellphone data connections are unreliable in the hamlet.

Families will learn how to decorate a holiday cottage that doubles as a craft box in a holiday workshop on Friday, Dec. 20, at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.

Almost three years after the death of Robert Schneider, who was principal at Pierson Middle and High School for seven years in the 1990s, a plaque commemorating a major building expansion in 2003 will be replaced with one that acknowledges his contributions to the project.

Mold was discovered in several places at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in late August, and the East Hampton School District is almost done remediating the problem, a senior school official said this week.

On Sunday at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, the award-winning film “Green Book” will be screened for teens and adults as part of the “Tough Topics” film series.

The argument over cellphones as either distractions or useful educational tools for students has divided some at the Bridgehampton School.

Sensory Friendly

Children with sensory processing disorders or who are on the autism spectrum will find an especially welcoming space at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton on Saturday morning. From 8 to 10, light and sound will be reduced in the exhibits, the space will be less crowded, and there will be quiet rooms for kids who fare better with less stimulation. Admission will be free.

A possible increase in high school tuition the East Hampton School District will charge to feeder districts has become a source of contention in contract negotiations between the Springs and East Hampton districts, Debra Winter, the Springs superintendent, said on Tuesday.

“The Nutcracker” Is Coming

You know it’s the holiday season when tickets go on sale for the Hampton Ballet Theatre School’s annual production of “The Nutcracker” at Guild Hall. And so they have.

The school’s dancers have been hard at work all fall preparing for the production, which will be staged on Friday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m., Dec. 7 at 1 and 7 p.m., and Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $20 to $45 in advance, $25 to $50 the day of the show, but be warned: Seats for this popular production have been known to sell out in advance.

Teachers of generations past may have lamented “ants in the pants” as a cause of classroom distractions by fidgety kids. Today, schools like the Springs School are taking a more holistic approach to managing those “ants.”

In conversation together, Anita Boyer and Kasia Klimiuk have the sort of energy that sparks back-and-forth like a pinball machine fueled by lightning.

Several parents and others in the Amagansett School community have expressed unhappiness with a recent decision by the school board to appoint a new member to a vacant seat without widely publicizing it.

The Children’s Museum of the East End will host a book swap in its lobby on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Mary McCaffrey, the Wainscott School's secretary and district clerk for 19 years, died on Monday. Services will be held on Friday and Saturday.

Katy Graves, the Sag Harbor School District superintendent, stepped down over the weekend to have “immediate surgery” in New York City, the district announced Saturday.