Riverbank Unified School District’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 2 was canceled that day, but continued to Friday, Dec. 5 with a full agenda, board reorganization, numerous consent items, and presentations.

The election of officers for the board of trustees was held for the coming year and Susan Taylor was appointed as Board President, Suzanne Dean was elected as Clerk of the Board, and Connie Gilbert will be the Representative to Stanislaus County Committee for School District Reorganization.

Students from Cardozo Middle School (CMS), Riverbank Language Academy (RLA), Mesa Verde Elementary, and California Avenue Elementary were recognized at the meeting for their participation in the Stanislaus County Junior High Spelling Championship for 2014-2015.

The spelling bee championship is sponsored by the Stanislaus County Office of Education (SCOE) and was held on Nov. 19 at the Martin G Petersen Event Center in Modesto. Retired educator, Harry Bakker, served as the Spelling Master and 22 volunteers served as proctors. There were 36 students from 20 different schools that participated in the event.

Each school district sent their top spellers from elementary grades four through six and junior high grades seven through eight to the competition. The word lists were available online and the Spelling Master selected 90 percent of the words used in the competition from the word list and 10 percent of the words from an unpublished list.

All the student competitors received a certificate of participation and a medal.

The two first place winners that will represent Stanislaus County at the State Championship in San Rafael on May 2, 2015 are Sam Victorio, Eighth Grade, Oakdale Junior High and Liah Kim, Eighth Grade, Prescott Junior High.

Frances Haydock, Eighth Grader from Turlock Junior High will serve as an alternate if either first place winner is unable to attend.

The following students represented Riverbank in the Junior High category, Joey Garcia, 8th Grade, CMS; Erik Carbery, 7th Grade, CMS; Evelyn Ornelas, 8th Grade, RLA; and Eduardo Arauza, 7th Grade, RLA.

The elementary students that participated were Will Eitelgeorge 6th Grade, CMS; Caleb Reyneveld, 6th Grade, RLA; Sebastian Trevino, 5th Grade, RLA; Jackson Tigert, 5th Grade, Mesa Verde; Taran Narula, 5th Grade, California Avenue; and Julian Castellanos, 4th Grade, California Avenue.

Garcia was a gold medal winner along with silver medal winners, Arauza, Carbery, and Ornelas.