It is not March yet, but there was spelling madness at the Knox County Board of Education on Tuesday, February 18, as twenty-one students battled to win the title of Knox County’s top speller.
The winning word?
Rhombus
Definition please? A parallelogram with opposite equal acute angles, opposite equal obtuse angles, and four equal sides.
Can you use it in a sentence? A square is considered a rhombus.
It was rhombus, in the seventh round of the Bee, that Barbourville’s Samuel Moore spelled correctly to hold on to his title of top speller having won the Bee in 2019 as well. The title of runner up went to Alyvia Merida of Girdler (who was second runner up last year) having misspelled her word in the seventh round.
Third place was a spell off. Jace Baker of G.R. Hampton and Grace Kennedy of Flat Lick would go another two rounds to find out who was the third-place champion. We don’t want to be a tattletale, but it was Jace that won. The word? Tattletale, of course!
“The Spelling Bee is one of our favorite academic competitions of the year,” said Shelton. “This year’s Bee went so well thanks to our school coordinators and a fantastic panel of volunteers that work with me to make the event possible.”
Moore will now represent Knox County at the Kentucky Derby Festival’s Spelling Bee event to be held in Louisville.
This year’s judges were Claudia Greenwood, Maryanne Stewart, and Harrison Davis. All three are former Knox County educators. The pronouncer for the Bee was Melissa Shepherd, also a former educator in the Knox County Schools. Shepherd was the school spelling bee coordinator at Knox County Middle until her retirement.
“Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Shepherd were great new additions this year and served well in their positions. Both of them had just retired from teaching, so it was an honor for us to be able to invite them back in to be a part of this event,” said Shelton.
The Bee was sponsored locally by the GRWC KY Barbourville Junior Woman’s Study Club, Knox County Farm Bureau, L&N Federal Credit Union, Forcht Bank and the Knox County Board of Education.
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