River Oaks student wins district’s Spanish Spelling Bee

A-C-R-O-M-Á-T-I-C-O. Acromático.

That was the word that fifth-grader Leylani Solorzano correctly spelled to become the first place winner in the Pflugerville school district Spanish spelling bee on Dec. 10. The River Oaks Elementary student beat out 23 other dual-language students during the event, which featured the three finalists from eight individual school spelling bees.

Spring Hill Elementary students, third-grader Odalys Yulissa Flores-Vasquez and fifth-grader Anneth Mora-Guerrero earned second and third place, respectively.

River Oaks Elementary Principal Tere Ralston said the spelling bee is a great opportunity for students. It is exciting to have a River Oaks Elementary student win the competition, she added.

The event was hosted by Spring Hill Elementary. Spring Hill Principal Troy Pitsch said the most important part of the spelling bee was to showcase the diverse community within the district.

“Anytime we can highlight the skills of our kiddos and let them demonstrate how strong they are in their Spanish skills is great,” he said. “We’re featuring one of the many languages that are prominent in our district and we encourage all of our kiddos to be able to be dual language fluent.”

Pitsch said the spelling bee has been held for four years and serves as a community reminder that students in the district hold high level language skills at an early age.

“It’s important that we highlight both language strands and the skills it takes to be successful in both,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to show their knowledge and aptitude in their language.”

Pflugerville ISD Dual Language Specialist Amanda Noriega said the competitions go beyond being fluent in two languages and instead focuses on the student’s education and growth with the languages.

“Our meet is not just about kids being bilingual,” she said. “It’s about kids every day that are investing and learning academic Spanish.”

Pflugerville school district Advanced Academics Coordinator Rebecca Embry said the dual-language instructors strive to encourage students to be fully literate in both languages, not just conversationally, but academically as well.

“We have the dual-language program and we will have the dual-language Spanish academic meet in January,” she said. “Both are events that have been developed to support the academics and work that students are doing every day to learn academic Spanish, not just academic English.”