A high school spelling bee – how often do those happen? That’s exactly what occurred on  November 16 through homerooms when teachers sent a student down the main gym to represent their class. This wasn’t just any spelling bee either, students participated against their class and one administrator to find the ultimate champion.

Freshmen competed against Athletic Director Chris Irwin, sophomores tried to beat science teacher Andy Roth, juniors were tied up with Assistant Principal Libby McIlwain, and seniors were bested by Gracy Lloyd. One student won from each grade level, bringing pride to their homerooms and points for Class Olympics.

Vaneesa Panchal of Mrs. Werner’s homeroom won for the sophomores. “I won the fifth grade spelling bee so I wanted to try again,” Panchal said. “It was fun, pretty easy, and the words weren’t hard.”

The other winners were senior Aiden Kessler of Mrs. Jude’s homeroom, junior Trestle Holton of Mrs. Rhine’s homeroom, and freshman Brian Gehring of Mr. Dubiel’s homeroom. While they all made it to the end, they weren’t able to have a stand off against each other because homeroom ran out of time. 

In the end, they each earned 20 points towards Class Olympics.

Unfortunately, the spelling bee itself ran into a few technical errors. Several homeroom teachers reported not being able to access the video, which it turns out was because the homeroom committee did not start the Facebook live until a few minutes into the spelling bee. Other homerooms did not have sound.