Four local students are prepping for the state competition after taking the top spots at the Santa Barbara County Spelling Bee on Feb. 20.
Laguna Blanca School sixth-grader Vincent Vestergaard took first place in the elementary school division by spelling “gossamer;” Matthew Helkey, a Santa Barbara Charter Home-Based Partnership sixth-grader, took second place with the correct spelling of “abruptly;” and third place went to sixth-grader Montessori Center School student Emily Vesper for spelling “cuckoo.”
Junior High School division first-place winner Alexander Jacob, an eighth-grader from Vandenberg Middle School, spelled “paradisiacal” for the win. Second place went to ninth-grader Rafael Saavedra from Dos Pueblos High School, for spelling “denizen.” Third-place winner Jackson Hurley, an eighth-grader at Laguna Blanca School, took his spot with “hippology.”
The top two winners in each division will move on to the state competition. The state spelling bee for grades four through six will be April 26 at the San Joaquin County Office of Education in Stockton. The junior high competition for seventh- through ninth-graders will be held May 3 at Miller Creek Middle School in San Rafael.
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 6, 2014.
