It took eight rounds before a winner was declared for the Westmoreland County Public Schools’ spelling bee district championship. At the end of the evening, seventh grade Montross Middle School student, Bri’Elle Hall sealed her victory by spelling correctly the final word of the night, “prophetically.” Dr. Michael Perry, Superintendent, presented Ms. Hall with a “WMLCPS” dictionary for her accomplishment. Runner-up, Montross Middle School eighth grader, William Townsend, was also recognized.
Ms. Hall will now prepare for the regional contest in Fredericksburg. An all A student at Montross Middle School, she is the daughter of I’asha Hall, a teacher at Westmoreland High School.
The Spelling Bee school winners for 2023 were Cople Elementary; first grade, Talena Bowen (alternate, Jessica Ross); second grade, Sincere Arthur (alternate, Davyeon Turner), third grade, Marissa Ramirez (alternate, Joba Wilson), fourth grade, Kayla Jones, (alternate, Bentley Wheeler) and fifth grade, Tahari Yerby (alternate, Gregory Johnson)).
Washington District champions were; first grade, Reign Gray, (alternate, Sawyer Hutt.), second grade, Emory Townsend (alternate, Quinn Hogg), third grade, Reagan Roberts (alternate, Anabell Taylor), fourth grade, Gavin Groves, (alternate, Brey Gardiner), and fifth grade, Brooklynn Carter (alternate, Audrey Kenis).
Montross Middle School was represented by sixth grade, Mandy McHugh (alternate, Armarri Johnson), seventh grade, Bri’Elle Hall (alternate, Kayla Brown), and eighth grade, William Townsend (alternate, Joseph Szurko).
The event was coordinated by Carole Alexander, Director of Testing & Data. The spelling bee announcer was Julie Weicht, Director of Curriculum. Judges included Carole Washington, Special Education Director, Cathy Rice, Deputy Superintendent, and Patty Kelly Long, Public Relations Specialist. School coordinators were Cople, Holly Angel, assistant principal; Washington District, Dr. Dawn Tyler, assistant principal; and Montross Middle, Meghan Smith, assistant principal.
We congratulate all of our champions who so admirably represented their prospective schools.