BY CLIFF SMELLEY
To qualify for region-level competition and avoid going another round with Starke Elementary student Amelia Cooper, it was essential for Lawtey Elementary student Jaxon Casellese to spell “essential” correctly.
He did, making him the winner of the Bradford County District spelling bee, which took place Feb. 15 in the district’s board room.
Castellese, who’s in the fifth grade, spelled seven of eight words correctly to earn the trip to the 8-th annual First Coast Regional Spelling Bee, which will be held March 15 at Jacksonville’s LaVilla School of the Arts. The cost for him and his parents to attend will be covered by the nonprofit Bradford County Education Foundation, which sponsored the Bradford district spelling bee as well as the spelling bees at each school.
Cooper, who’s in the sixth grade, spelled four of six words correctly to earn the district-level runner-up trophy for the second straight year.
The event consisted of 11 participants in all.
“Just being up here tonight, you are all winners,” said BCEF President Cheryl Canova.
Superintendent of Schools Will Hartley echoed Canova’s sentiment, saying, “Just to be sitting up here and representing your school is a great honor. I’m proud of all of you for that.”
Three were eliminated after the first round, in which Castellese correctly spelled “puckish” and Cooper correctly spelled “chortle.”
Joining Castellese and Cooper in round two were Addaleigh Lansford (Bradford Elementary, sixth grade), Sebastian Patterson (Starke, sixth grade), Mia Ortega (Starke, sixth grade), Danielle McClenaghan (Bradford, sixth grade), Andrew Sanders (Lawtey, fifth grade) and Emma Atkins (Starke, fifth grade).
Three more contestants were eliminated in the second round, but Castellese, who had to spell “calculator,” and Cooper, who had to spell “vocabulary,” advanced along with Patterson, Ortega and Sanders.
Round three saw the field whittled down to three. Castellese and Cooper spelled “jankers” and “puritan,” respectively, while Ortega spelled “whereas.”
Castellese started off the fourth round by correctly spelling “patience.” Ortega misspelled “premonition,” while Cooper misspelled “enumerated.” That meant Castellese had to correctly spell another word to win, but he misspelled “complementary,” which advanced all three participants into another round.
It then came down to two. Ortega misspelled “spectral,” while Castellese correctly spelled “occupancy” and Cooper correctly spelled “adhesion.”
Castellese began the final round by correctly spelling “seclusion.” After Cooper misspelled “skirmish,” Castellese correctly spelled “essential” to earn the first-place trophy.
All participants earned the right to compete by placing in the top four at their school-level spelling bees.
Bradford Elementary results were: Lansford (champion), McClenaghan (runner-up), fifth-grader Haven Benitez (third) and fifth-grader Bennett Levine (fourth).
Lawtey Elementary results were: Castellese (champion), sixth-grader Amelia Clem (runner-up), fifth-grader Kenley King (third) and Sanders (fourth). Though she qualified, Clem didn’t compete at the district event.
Starke Elementary results were: Atkins (champion), Ortega (runner-up), Patterson (third) and Cooper (fourth).
Troy Appling served as the pronouncer for the district event, while BCEF members Canova, Vorease Jones and Lila Sellars were the judges.
BCEF provided the trophies as well as gifts that were presented to every participant. The organization also provided gifts of appreciation to school coordinators Tammy Adams (Bradford), Rebecca Ansley (Lawtey), Debbie Parmenter (Lawtey) and Melissa Hines (Starke).
In his opening remarks, Hartley recognized the educators (as well as School Board Member Gayle Nicula) in attendance, noting that they weren’t required to be there.
“They only came because they love your children,” Hartley said.
Hartley thanked the students’ families, saying, “One thing that we all know as educators is that our students who excel have parents who truly care about their education.”
The superintendent also thanked BCEF and its support of the county’s public schools.
“They are remarkable,” Hartley said. “I think every educator in this room would agree with that.”
