Five local students competed in the 2021 Alaska State Spelling Bee late last month.
According to information from the Alaska Spelling Bee organization, 88 students in grades three through eight qualified for the state-level competition.
The bee s first place winner was Ishita Khiani, a seventh-grader at Dzantik i Heeni Middle School in Juneau.
The Ketchikan School District was represented by Thierry Oyedeji, a Houghtaling Elementary fourth-grader; Sarah Reynolds, a Fawn Mountain Elementary fifth-grader; Bella Wills, a Tongass School of Arts and Sciences fifth-grader; Alijhan Millendez, a Ketchikan Charter School fifth-grader; and Riley Saxton, a Point Higgins Elementary sixth-grader.
Those students all won their classroom-level and school-level spelling bees earlier this year, and then competed against each other in the district-wide bee in early March.
 The Ketchikan School Board approved all items on its agenda at its regular meeting on Wednesday night with no opposition, and did not take any actions after discussing the Ketchikan School Districtâs budget priorities.
Prior to the budget discussion, Acting Superintendent Katie Parrott presented the board with the results of the districtâs budget survey as part of her superintendentâs report. No members of the board asked questions of Parrott at the end of the presentation.
The two items of new business on the agenda offered a quick change of topic. Board members unanimously approved an updated Memorandum of Agreement between the district and its two charter schools, Ketchikan Charter School and the Tongass School of Arts and Sciences, then approved a contract extension with district psychologist Brian Adams.
Though the Ketchikan School District has returned to low risk level operations, the Ketchikan School Board will meet virtually on Wednesday to review the results of a community survey before discussing the district s budget priorities.
Also at the meeting, the board will consider a contract extension and weigh revisions to the district s agreement with its charter schools.
Budget priorities
As a prelude for the board s budget discussion, Acting Superintendent Katie Parrott as part of her superintendent s report will share the results of the district s community-wide budget survey. The survey results are attached to the meeting agenda under the superintendent s report.
3 in a row: Oyedeji wins District Bee ketchikandailynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ketchikandailynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Each year, students from across the Ketchikan School District test their skills in a bookish battle.
The Battle of the Books program is presented through the Alaska Association of School Librarians. Each spring, AASLA releases a list of books tailored for student participants in kindergarten through 12th grade, and the students have the majority of the year to read all the books on the list.
Then, in the fall, at the beginning of the next school year, students form teams and engage in âbattlesâ (of) involving trivia about the books with other students from competing teams in their same grade bracket.