A big congratulations to Kaitlyn Hoagland, who is the first-place winner in this year's Catasauqua Middle School Spelling Bee.

A congratulations also goes out to Ariel Thorne, first runnerup.

Kaitlyn will now advance to the preliminary written round Thursday, Feb. 27, at Northampton Community College.

If she qualifies, she will move on to the 28th Annual Regional Finals for the Scripps National Spelling Bee March 27, also at NCC.

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A reminder to students and parents: classes will be in session Friday, Feb.14, and Thursday, April 17, due to school closures because of inclement weather.

The last day for students is now Thursday, June 12.

Information on school closures and delays can be found on the district website, http://www.cattysd.org.

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The Catasauqua Area School Board will hold its next meeting 7 p.m. Feb. 4 in the district administration office board room, 201 N. 14th St.