Pelham's Annual Spelling Bee Results

Press release from Pelham Public Schools:

June 22, 2021

Congratulations to 8th grader Gianluca Polenzani (Pelham Middle School), 3rd grader Veda
Jain (Hutchinson School) and 4th grader Jai Wakins (Colonial School) for finishing 1st, 2nd and
3rd respectively in the annual Pelham Public Schools annual Spelling Bee which was held on
June 3.

The tournament, which is generously supported by the PTAs, began with 15 students in grades
3-8 who advanced to the tournament by placing in the top 3 in their respective school-wide
bees. Over the course of 43 rounds, the students competed for the rights to be Pelham’s top
speller with Gianluca and Veda facing off head-to-head in rounds 8-43 before Gianluca won with
the word “Litany.” Gianluca, Veda and Jai were each awarded a Merriam-Webster dictionary
donated by Merriam-Webster President Gregory Barlow, a Pelham resident.

In addition to the three top finishers, this year’s participants were:
Colonial
William Gallagher, Gr. 3
Penelope McGibbon, Gr. 3
Hutchinson
Reagan Bardolf, Gr. 4
Mason Wan, Gr. 3
Prospect Hill
Nils Agerberg, Gr. 3
Sandy Joachim, Gr. 3
Laila Sakhrani, Gr. 3
Pelham Middle School
Henry Brandler, Gr. 8
Nishika Sing, Gr. 6

The District would like to extend in sincerest gratitude to this year’s pronouncer, PMHS English
Teacher Neil Schleifer and judges Lynn Sabia, PMS Principal, Sean Llewellyn, PMS Assistant
Principal and Dr. Maria Thompson, Director of Humanities as well as teachers William Chimento
(Pelham Middle School), Kate Alix (Hutchinson School), Kara Weiss (Prospect Hill School),
Amanda Sozio (Siwanoy School) and Christine Lavin (Colonial School), who served as spelling
bee coaches.

This press release was produced by Pelham Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.