Both the Hall County School District and the Gainesville City School System held their annual spelling bees this past week, and the top spellers in the two districts will now advance to the district competition.
Hall County's top speller for 2021 was Ivan Saunders, a 5th grader from World Language Academy Elementary School. After second place finisher Brekelle Wilkes stumbled on the word "copse," Saunders correctly spelled the words "scabbard" and "litany" to take the competition. The Hall County bee, held on Jan. 27 at East Hall High School's Performing Arts Center, featured 34 students from 24 schools in the district. This year's bee went 13 rounds and students spelled through 133 words.
While Saunders will represent Hall County as the winner of the bee, Wilkes, an 8th grader from World Language Academy Middle School, will also be part of the district competition.
The winner of the Jan. 29 Gainesville City School System bee was Andrew Mady, an 8th grade student at Gainesville Middle School. Mady successfully spelled the word "testosterone" to win the GCSS bee.
Mady was the top speller among competitors from six elementary schools, Gainesville Virtual Academy and GMS.
The second place speller and district alternate for Gainesville is 4th grader Caleb Izaguirre from Centennial Arts Academy
Due to the COVID pandemic, the Gainesville bee was held virtually by Zoom video conference.
