TEMECULA -- To bee or not to bee; that is the question. The answer, at least as far as the Temecula Valley Unified School District is concerned, is not to bee.

Its officials decided against organizing a districtwide spelling bee this year. Because of that, the district will not have a student representative at the countywide contest this March, the winner of which goes on to compete in the national championships at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

This is the first time the Temecula school system has decided against offering a districtwide bee, typically conducted each January. All other Southwest County schools are having their annual contests.

In spite of the district's decision, which has prompted criticism from parents, some teachers have rolled up their sleeves and moved forward with schoolwide bees.

Regardless of whether the decision is popular, officials said they are standing by their choice.

"As a public school district, our focus has to be on the California content standards," Dianne Vaez, the district's director of secondary instruction, said of the detailed list of subjects and information state officials expect students to be taught at each grade level.

Standards dictate that writing and reading comprehension are far more important than spelling, she said.

For several consecutive years, the Temecula school system has bested all other districts in the county on statewide standardized test scores. Vaez said district educators take student learning very seriously and their priorities are in order.

"We want to see our students spend more time reading and writing, and less time memorizing how to spell words," Vaez said. "We have brilliant students, and it's not that we don't think spelling is important. But in the grand scheme of things, it's at the bottom of the list."

Another factor contributing to the decision was the amount of time it takes to organize and conduct the bees, which is time taken away from classroom learning, Vaez said.

The bee starts with classroom contests, with winners proceeding to schoolwide competitions. The winner of those bees move on to the districtwide contest. The process takes effort and energy by the people organizing it and includes lots of busy work, she said.

In addition, the county bee's sponsor had temporarily backed out, meaning the winner of that regional competition would not have been sent to the national one, Vaez said.

In December, the county bee's sponsor agreed to sign on again. Yet, school district officials were notified of that change only recently, said Tracey Rivas, the Riverside County Office of Education official organizing the county bee.

With the sponsor on board, if the winner of the county bee is in middle school, he or she will go on to the national competition, Rivas said.

In the wake of the district decision, some schools did not schedule a bee or cancelled their schoolwide bee, while a few campuses still conducted one or are planning to.

"We are doing it for the kids," said Christine Kelly, the Abby Reinke Elementary School teacher who organized the schoolwide bee that was held Wednesday. "It's just to recognize them. It's exciting. They take great pride in the fact they are great spellers."

Helen Hunt Jackson Elementary School is also scheduled to conduct a schoolwide bee.

"The kids still have a right to be able to do it, and I wasn't going to take that from them," said teacher and bee organizer Melia Pommier. "It does take a lot of time to get it ready, and the kids spend hours studying these words. But that shows their dedication."

Regionally, spelling bees took center stage in 2005 after a Poway student won the national competition.

Spelling bees have also become in vogue nationally after the movie "Akeelah and the Bee" was released last year. It's the story of an impoverished south Los Angeles girl who made it to the national spelling bee. Each year, ESPN also televises the national bee.

Some Temecula parents said they think the spelling bee should have been preserved.

"I think they should offer them for the kids," said Donna Leikness, whose son, Adam, won Temecula's districtwide bee last year and then represented the district at the county competition as a seventh-grader.

"He is a competitor, and likes winning," she said of her son. "It's a shame to drop it to the wayside."

Adam, 13, said this week that he enjoyed his spelling bee experience last year.

"I learned a whole bunch of definitions and how to spell stuff," he said. "It was kind of fun, and even sort of invigorating."

Longtime Temecula PTA volunteer and parent Barbara Burkett said that although spelling may not be at the top of the state's content standards list, the bees are an academic tradition and can be exciting for many students.

She said district officials offered the same line of reasoning when they quit participating in the National History Day competition a few years ago.

After more than 20 years of involvement, the district stopped competing in the National History Day program because, they said, it did not fit within the state's social science and English standards.

That competition provides students with an opportunity to write historical papers and produce a variety of documentaries, three-dimensional displays, Web sites and other reports. Some Temecula students have gone on to compete without the district's support, teachers have said.

"I understand teachers have a full plate and the requirements from the state don't make things any easier," Burkett said, "but sometimes there is such an emphasis on state testing that things that are a tradition fall by the wayside."

The district's middle school principals collectively made the decision to cancel the bee at the start of this school year, Vaez said. It was something they had discussed last school year, too, she said.

"We used far too many resources and too much time on the spelling bee, and spelling is not one of our major standards," she said.

So far, Vaez said the district office has not fielded any complaints with parents upset over the decision. She said she would apologize and explain the district's position to any who might call.

Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jkabbany@californian.com.