School may be out for summer for most students but some serious academic effort is going on this week, at the national spelling bee in Washington. Iowa’s representative will be 13-year-old Isaac Kurth, an 8th-grader at Harding Middle School in Des Moines. He says ever since he won the state spelling bee back in early March, he’s been studying, trying to learn more words from the suggested practice list. And the Nebraska contestant in the Scripps National Spelling Bee this Wednesday and Thursday is — Benjamin Thomas Reinig, of Shelby County Catholic School in Harlan, Iowa. He qualified in the Omaha World Herald sponsored state contest. Ben has a sister who was in the national finals in 1993 and 94, another sister who took part in 2001, ’02 and ’03.
