M
anischa Wijayawardhana, a sixth-grade student
at Switzerland Point Middle School won the
annual St. Johns County School District (SJCSD)
Spelling Bee held at First Coast Technical College
CHARACTER COUNTS! Conference Center. She won by
spelling the word “ascension” correctly. Manischa is the
daughter of Charles and Aloka Wijayawardhana.
It took 12 rounds for the winner to be determined.
The participants were congratulated by Deputy
Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt, School Board Member
Bill Mignon, and Associate Superintendent Dawn Sapp.
Forty-six elementary and middle school students from
31 public and five private schools competed for the
honor of representing St. Johns County in the First
Coast Regional Spelling Bee scheduled for Thursday,
February 27 at Jacksonville University. If for any reason
8 | S T. J O H N S parent M A G A Z I N E
the winner is not able to attend, runner-up Himaschi
Wijayawardhana, a fifth grader from Timberlin Creek
Elementary School will represent the county.
The winner of the regional spelling bee will advance to
compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee scheduled
in May in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Rebecca England, SJCSD program specialist for
Elementary Language Arts, served as the spelling bee
coordinator and the pronouncer was Dr. Carl Williams,
professor and chair of the education department
at Flagler College. Judges for the event were Jay
DiMartino, SJCSD secondary language arts program
specialist; Cheryl Freeman, director of the retired and
senior volunteer program; and Karen Porter, English
language arts K-12 curriculum specialist Flagler County.