It’s July, and that means school districts across the state are working on their budgets, coming close to the final version for approval later this month.

As this process works out, we’d like to encourage all the schools in the Capital Journal region, as well as the rest of the state, to make sure to include a small but very important item.

A couple of years ago, the Scripps National Spelling Bee changed its entry rules so that all schools sending a participant to a regional bee must pay a $99 entry fee. Schools also now have to enroll themselves online between Aug. 17 and Oct. 16. It isn’t a lengthy process or a lot of money, but it is a change from before, and that change has resulted in steady and severely declining participation in spelling bees throughout South Dakota.

Advertisement

This year, two of the regions decided not to hold bees because the participation was too low.

The way spelling bees work in South Dakota is: 10 daily newspapers in the state coordinate 10 regional bees. Every school is assigned to a region. Once schools find a winner to send to their regional bee, those contestants spell against the champs from other participating schools in their region. The regional winner then advances to a state competition, which moves from city to city on a 10-year cycle, each newspaper taking a turn hosting it. The overall winner from the state is sent to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

The only cost to the school is the $99 fee, unless the school chooses to send a faculty or staff chaperone to the regional or state bee and pay for the cost of transportation. Some schools do that, but more often, parents take their own children.

Regional bees only take a couple of hours on a Saturday, and in Pierre, we provide the participants breakfast. The state bee begins with some fun Friday night events. The family’s hotel room is provided for an overnight stay, and the contest is held Saturday morning. Often some meals are included for the state event. The national bee is all-expenses-paid by the host newspapers in South Dakota through the South Dakota Newspaper Association.

In 2006 in Pierre, there were seven students competing in the regional spelling bee. In 2007, there were five. In 2008, there was only one, and this year just two Stanley County students participated.

We know that computers have made writing and communicating much easier in the last 15 years, but the importance of being a good speller should not be forgotten. It’s a skill that is needed, and we hope schools will stress that importance through their involvement in the spelling bees.

We’re committed to continuing this tradition and helping it grow. The opportunity for students to be a part of school, regional, state and the national spelling bees should not be overlooked.