The winner of this year's Peoria Unified School District spelling bee is Salem Galaviz from Marshall Ranch Elementary School in Glendale.

Galaviz won with the word “asthmatic,” at the competition on Jan. 18.

The seven runners-up include:

• Danica Chen (grade 8) from Sunset Heights Elementary School in Peoria.
• Jaelyn Clark (grade 8) from Sundance Elementary School in Peoria
• Safeerah Manjra (grade 7) from Oasis Elementary School in Peoria
• Nick McGuire (grade 7) from Peoria Traditional School.
• Millie Phillips (grade 8) from Frontier Elementary School in Peoria.
• Scott Sinex (grade 8) from Vistancia Elementary School in Peoria.
• Darla White (grade 8) from Sun Valley Elementary School in Peoria

The winner and the runners-up will compete in the Maricopa County Region IV Spelling Bee hosted on Feb. 8 at the district office of Washington Elementary School District, 4650 W. Sweetwater Ave., Glendale.

The winners of the regional bee will move on to the state-level Arizona Spelling Bee in March followed by the Scripps National Spelling Bee held in National Harbor, MD in the summer of 2024.

Those who were unable to attend district spelling bee may watch the recorded event on the district’s YouTube channel at https://www.peoriaunified.org/spellingbee.

Peoria Unified School District is home to 42 public schools serving approximately 36,000 students and 4,000 staff.