Middle schoolers battle for spelling bee crown

PALMER — More than 100 of the Valley's best middle school spellers gathered at Palmer Junior Middle School Friday where one earned the right to represent the school at the upcoming state spelling bee in Anchorage next month. After more than seven hours, PJMS sixth grader Meredith Losca earned the title.

Organized and emceed by PJMS teacher Linda Jo Klapperich, students gathered in the school library as soon as the school day began. With the exception of a half-hour lunch break, students worked their way through words, including some that would give adults fits. By 1 p.m., the 110 students had been whittled down to about 25.

Klapparich said the bee was open to all students, not just those who may excel in English or grammar.

"We opened it to everyone. They didn't have to be top spellers It gave everyone a chance to participate," Klapperich said. "It was great to see so many kids involved."

One by one, the pool got smaller. Once there were four left from each grade, the word difficulty seemed to increase. Some samples included “yurt,” “reveille” and “absorption.” There was a tie for third place between Joseph Stroup, Victoria Frako and Marin Livingston. That left Michele Poirot and Losca left to battle it out for the crown.

After Poirot missed her word, Losca first had to spell "parliamentary" and then nail “beatitude” to claim the title, which she did without hesitating. Klapperich said this year's bee took longer to complete than previous years. With a handful of finalists, she thought the championship wouldn't be decided until Monday as finalists were still going at it with five minutes remaining in the school day. Losca completed the task with two minutes before last bell.

The top two finalists in each grade earned ribbons while first through third place finalists also received a trophy to show for the efforts.

Contact reporter Chris Ford at 352-2270 or chris.ford@frontiersman.com