Hooker wins district spelling bee

Published 2:56 pm Wednesday, February 28, 2018

The Jefferson Davis County School District hosted the 2018 county-wide spelling bee at the Academic Success Center in Carson on Feb. 2.

Students in third through eighth grades from Carver Elementary, J. E. Johnson Elementary and Prentiss Christian had the opportunity to participate in the annual event.

The first and second place spelling bee winners from each school were advanced to the county-wide spelling bee.

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The six county participants were Manyla Carrell, sixth grader at J.E. Johnson, JaDarius Hooker, eighth grader at J.E. Johnson, Layla Hathorn, third grader at G.W. Carver, Kyle Marin, fifth grader at G.W. Carver, Jordan McPhail, seventh grader at Prentiss Christian School and Dan Sinclair, fifth grader at Prentiss Christian School.

The judges for the event were Rose Powell, Joan Bass, Casey Ward, Cherri Hall and Mattie Lewis.

Powell and Bass are both retired educators from the Jefferson Davis County School District.

Hall is a JDCSD educator and Lewis is a JDCSD case manager.

Ward is the JDC Tobacco-Free Coalition director. Margaret Wallace, JDCSD behavior specialist, served as the announcer for the spelling bee.

Karey Alegria, JDCSD ELA instructional coach, served as the spelling bee coordinator for the school district and Chellie Payne, JDCSD special projects coordinator, assisted with the spelling bee.

The overall winner of the 2018 Jefferson Davis County Spelling Bee was JaDarius Hooker. The winning word spelled by Hooker on the county level was impeccable.

Hooker will advance on to the Mississippi Spelling Bee. The state spelling bee will be March 13, at Jackson State University.

Mississippi Public Broadcasting will air the state spelling bee live starting at 10 a.m.

The second place winner was Manyla Carrell and the third place winner was Dan Sinclair.