Several local youngsters are gearing up for the 2015 San Joaquin County Spelling Bee Championships.
The finals are scheduled for Wednesday at the San Joaquin County Office of Education’s Wentworth Education Center, 2707 Transworld Dr. in Stockton.
The 19th annual event will kick off at 3 p.m. with the Elementary Division (grades 4-6) featuring the top spellers from the various private and public schools.
Representing Manteca Unified is Emily Banh (Mossdale), Nickolas McConnell (New Haven), and Miles Lerma (Golden West) while Ripon Unified will feature Kalista Yan (Ripon Elementary), Steve Hanna (Park View) and Kenji Banji (Colony Oak).
They’re hoping to be among the 72 advancing to the finals (the district-wide spelling bee started with 97).
The Junior High Division (grades 7-9) will follow.
Patrick Caldwell of Ripon Elementary has been there before, winning at the county level in 2013 while taking part in the state spelling bee.
He’s back along with Jeremiah Reynoso of Park View and Dylan Dunning Dunning of Colony Oak. They were the top three spellers in the RUSD event held earlier last month.
At MUSD, Wisher Tabaco of Komure Elementary School in Weston Ranch just won his fifth straight district-wide spelling bee.
He’ll be joined by Solman Aniss (Manteca High) and Joshua Vargas (Widmer).
The top two winners in each division will advance to the state spelling bee in the spring. Each will also receive a plaque along with a Barnes & Noble gift card.
This year’s sponsors are Premiere Community Credit Union, SJCOE and the SJCOE Educational Foundation.
For more information, log on to www.sjcoe.org.