From in-class spelling tests to school-wide bees, one student from each middle school proved to be the ‘top speller’ and will represent their building and the Westerville City School District (WCS) at the Scripps Spelling Bee Event. They are:
- Quentin Sheets (Blendon), grade 6;
- Rohan Mawalkar (Genoa), grade 6;
- Jonathan Stowers (Heritage), grade 6 (8th grade runner up Harrison Stenzel will compete for Heritage due to scheduling conflicts); and
- Nicholas Bagby (Walnut Springs), grade 7.
Each of the four student representatives earned, from Encyclopedia Britannica, a free one-year subscription to Britannica Online for Kids (a $69.95 value).
These spellers took a Scripp’s 50-word online written test and earned an invitation to the Regional Bee at Ohio University on March 18. Winners at that event will head to the National Scripps Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. the end of May.
Co-facilitated by the WCS Gifted Education Department and language art teachers, the purpose of the spelling bee is to help students improve spelling, increase vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.
Scripps (www.spellingbee.com) is the nation’s largest and longest-running spelling be administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company. Scripps Spelling Bees are sponsors in the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe as well as the Bahamas, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea.