The Haines School Spelling Bee has survived another round.
The competition will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the elementary gym.
How the winner will make the $1,000 trip to the state competition in Anchorage is unclear. Though the school board funded travel to the state bee in Anchorage last year, it won’t be doing so this year.
School administrators and teachers scratched the annual bee in October, citing declining student interest and the loss of American Legion sponsorship for the winner’s travel to the state championship in Anchorage. Alarmed by its imminent disappearance, several residents rallied to organize the event themselves.
Helen Alten, one of the parents trying to organize the event, said there was some kind of “miscommunication” between teachers and administrators about why the event went away.
Art teacher and longtime spelling bee organizer Linnus Danner said people started blaming her for the event’s cancellation. “There were people in the community that felt that I had personally not wanted to do the spelling bee, and that is why it wasn’t being held. And that wasn’t entirely true at all,” Danner said.
When Alten contacted Danner for background on the bee and how to keep it going as a private endeavor, she learned people weren’t communicating.
“When I talked to (previous organizer and art teacher) Linnus Danner, she was surprised and said that it wasn’t her decision to not do it,” said Alten. “And when I talked to (principal Cheryl Stickler) she said it wasn’t her decision to not do it. Each person said it was the other person.”
Stickler said the school decided in December to start offering an afterschool Spelling Club for students interested in participating in the bee voluntarily. The bee was previously a mandatory event, with each class from fourth to eighth grade conducting a competition and sending its two winners to the schoolwide bee.
“It just wasn’t well-received by many of the students, so instead of requiring it we made it optional so students who wish to continue have that opportunity,” Stickler said.
Alten said she agrees with the decision to make the bee voluntary.
“I think there should be spelling in classes. People need to learn to spell. But a spelling bee is something for people who love language and manipulating words and take pure joy in discerning the source of a particular word,” Alten said. “Why require somebody to do something that isn’t easy and isn’t something they enjoy and is really never going to be something they are good at?”
Alten’s 13-year-old daughter, Aurora Alten-Huber, who won two school-wide championships in West Virginia, said she also prefers the competition to be for those who actually want to participate.
“Honestly, I like it better when it’s not mandatory, because when it’s mandatory you get a lot of kids who don’t want to be there and couldn’t spell for their lives. I just want to be in a place where they want it and like that sort of thing,” Alten-Huber said.
Alten and her daughter differ on who should be responsible for paying the winner’s way to state, though.
“The problem is that people expected they would get paid to go to state,” Alten said. “In any other state (besides Alaska), they get to state however they get to state. Their parents drive them and pay the gas.”
“I don’t think it’s a given you’ll get money just because you won,” she said.
Alten said she wants to hold an adult spelling bee to help raise money for the winner’s travel to state.
The bee is a school-hosted activity, Alten’s daughter Alten-Huber said, and therefore it shouldn’t need to be funded privately. “I really do think it should be paid for by the school,” she said.
“Nobody should have to be content with ‘Okay, you won that, but you’re not going on to the next thing because we can’t afford it,’” she said.