LAPS District Spelling Bee winners pictured with Supt. Kurt Steinhaus are, from left, James Ito, 3rd place; Allison Amrani, 1st place; and Linhtet Htoon, 2nd place. Photo Courtesy LAPS

LAPS Spelling Bee Champion Allison Amrani is congratulated by Mountain Elementary School Principal Jennifer Kieltyka. Photo Courtesy LAPS

LAPS NEWS

And then there was one. Allison Amrani, a 6th grader at Mountain Elementary School, was named the 2019 District Spelling Bee Champion.  She will represent Los Alamos County at the State Spelling Bee in March.

Linhtet Htoon, a 6th grader at Pinon Elementary, garnered second place and James Ito, a 5th grader representing Chamisa Elementary, placed third.

“We are very proud of Allison and all of our students who participated in this year’s District Spelling Bee,” said SupT. Kurt Steinhaus.  “We hope to see them back again for next year’s competition.”

Chamisa Elementary School hosted the 18 contestants representing all five elementary schools and Los Alamos Middle School.  They included four 4th graders, four 5th graders, seven 6th graders and three 8th graders.

There were 13 rounds altogether, including two vocabulary rounds. The last four rounds determined 2nd and 3rd places.

A special thank you to those who volunteered to help with this year’s Spelling Bee: Judy Crocker, pronouncer; Morris Pongratz, Oliver Morris and Debbie Grothaus, judges; Cindy Richard, emcee; Anna Matuszak, timekeeper; and Victoria Nisoli, record keeper.