Music, arts and enrichment programs in the Island schools are on the block for downsizing as the Vineyard schools superintendent tries to craft a budget for the coming year with little or no increase over last year.

And if the 2011 $3.5 million shared services budget for fiscal year 2011 unveiled last week is approved by the All-Island School Committee, the elementary strings program will be first in line for cuts.

Menemsha will once again be the setting for a scene on screen, this time a European television movie.

Chilmark selectmen this week approved a request by Paul Van Wormer, production manager for Van Wormer International, to use the Menemsha Texaco gas pumps as a backdrop for the scene in a German movie described as similar to the U.S. series The Love Boat.

Mr. Van Wormer had already received permission from Texaco owners Marshall and Katie Carroll, on condition that the filming does not interfere with regular business at the gas station.

Now in its third year at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, the alternative STAR Program (Students and Teachers Achieving Results) has received a clear confirmation of success: program coordinator Matt Malowski received an Excellence in Teaching award from the Harvard Club of Boston at an off-Island ceremony Wednesday morning.

Against a backdrop of two drownings on Atlantic Ocean beaches over the summer, Chilmark selectmen and public safety officials have begun to tackle the complicated problem of improving safety and developing a more sophisticated emergency response and rescue system on beaches, especially remote, private beaches with limited vehicle access.

Town police chief Brian Cioffi led the discussion.

A plan to extend the town sewer system to the Island Grove subdivision in Edgartown was off and then on again this week, as selectmen debated whether to place the question on the warrant for a special town meeting later this month.

At their meeting Monday, selectmen voted to hold the $806,000 spending article for the annual town meeting in April; the question will also require an exemption from Proposition 2 1/2 on the town ballot and there is not enough time to schedule a special election to accompany the special town meeting.