District Spelling Bee Won by Prairie View 8th Grader Joel Mukkatt

Prairie View Middle School spellers provided the one-two punch needed to knock out the competition at District 140’s Annual Spelling Bee on May 10th.  Eighth grader Joel Mukkatt captured first place by correctly spelling the word "unfurl" and then clinching it with “monitor”.  Coming in a close second was seventh grader Brina Arvanetes. Third place honors went to McAuliffe fifth grader Sean Kammerzell.

“All of our competitors should be congratulated for their hard work and dedication,” said GATE Resource Teacher Susan Murphy.  “They each did a wonderful job representing their home school.”

Competing in the spell-off were the top two building level representatives from each of the District’s seven schools - a total of 14 competitors from grades four through eight. The competition was coordinated by D140 GATE teachers Susan Murphy, Sarah Osborne, and Karen Cronk.

Runners up included: Jack McKenna, McAuliffe, 4th Grade; Jake Keating, Bannes, 5th Grade; Kaitlyn Gudyka, Bannes, 4th Grade; Raphael Talusan, Fernway, 5th Grade; Liam Johnson, Fernway, 5th Grade;  Bilal Sarsour, Keller, 4th Grade; Jack Loftus, Keller, 5th Grade; Mahir Patel, Millennium, 4th Grade; Jade Aranda, Millennium, 4th Grade; Stephen Mathew, Grissom, 6th Grade, and Makayla More, Grissom, 8th Grade.

Congratulations to all!