The big story: Florida has its fourth national spelling bee champion in the competition’s nearly 100-year history, and its second from the Tampa Bay area in two years.
Bruhat Soma, a rising eighth-grader at Turner/Bartels K-8 School in Hillsborough County, claimed the prize in a remarkable tiebreaker that saw him correctly spell 29 words in 90 seconds. A year earlier, he placed 74th after misspelling the word “tonlet” in Round 4.
We’re working to get an interview with Bruhat today, to talk about his success and future plans. But for now, read more about the bee here and check out this video of his winning effort.
Hot topics
School leadership: Twenty-one Pinellas County schools are seeing principal shifts for the next school year.
Pride month recognition: Some Orange County parents and students are upset that the school district will not mark LQBTQ+ Pride Awareness Month in June this year, instead considering a separate resolution later in the fall, WFTV reports.
Parkland aftermath: The Broward County school district is making final arrangements to demolish the building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High where a 2018 shooting massacre took place, the Miami Herald reports.
Now hiring: School districts across Florida are seeking hundreds of new teachers, as some veterans leave the profession, Spectrum 13 reports.
New College: The city of Sarasota abandoned its effort to stop New College from removing trees from a proposed site for athletic fields, saying the city didn’t have authority to tell the school what to do, the Herald-Tribune reports.
History lessons: Some Floridians are accusing the Florida Department of Education of pushing Judeo-Christian ideals in new social studies standards, Axios Miami reports.
Discipline: Escambia County schools saw the number of reported student bullying incidents double over the past year, WEAR reports. Officials say the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Construction projects: An investigation into the $120 million contract to build a new high school in Marion County has uncovered political threats of retribution by a local construction firm against school district officials, Ocala Gazette reports.
Campus closures: Broward County school board members face a tough decision whether to close under-capacity schools in the face of community opposition, the Sun-Sentinel reports.
Don’t miss a story. Here’s a link to yesterday’s roundup.
Before you go … Ever wonder what they do during the commercial breaks on TV talk shows?
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/roundup-writereditor-loved-deals-tout-f5de51f85de145b2b1eb99cdb7b6cb84.jpg "I’m a Travel Writer, and Out of the 5 Million Prime Day Deals on Site, These Are the 12 I’m Shopping")
