ARL student places third at Regional Spelling Bee.

Albert R Lyman 6th Grader Oliver Jeppesen earned third place honors at the 2025 SESC Regional Spelling Bee held at Grand County High on March 6.
Jeppesen finished behind two 7th graders from Carbon County.
Kaira Francisco an 8th grader at Whitehorse and Nixon Boone a 4th grader at Monticello Elementary also competed in the regional spelling bee representing San Juan School District after the trio finished in the top 3 in the district competition.
The top three spellers from San Juan, Carbon, Emery, and Grand School Districts plus a student from Pinnacle Academy in Price competed at the event in Moab.
Those spellers were the winners represnting grades 4 through 8.
Mont Harmon 7th Grader Ashley Bryner won the spelling challenge after 21 rounds after correctly spelling extinguish. Amelia Gardner from Helper Middle School finished in 2nd place.
Bryner will represent the area at the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee Week held in National Harbor, Maryland, beginning May 25, 2025.
The spelling was overseen by pronouncer Jessie Magleby, Grand County Public Library, and SESC judges Johnna Boyack and JoLynn Torgerson.
Awards were presented by Southeast Education Service Center Director John Hughes.
The Scripps Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 291 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Ghana, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.
The Bee’s purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives. It is broadcast on Bounce TV and Ion Television.