Spellbound: Lemon Avenue School Finds Children Letter Perfect

Thirty-four pupils started with three-and four-letter words—lay, step, flat, that. The next four rounds ramped up the difficulty—clown, could, fable, armies. By Round 7, only three children were left.

Keller Flanagan, Lily Cruz-Robles and Emilee Olander—and 50 parents and grandparents watching this drama unfold at Lemon Avenue Elementary School—held their breaths.

Keller—wearing a green Beatles T-shirt—correctly spelled compare, gentle, early and poison. Lilly plowed through surely, walrus, choose and bathtub. Emilee, a student of Marlene Carlsen, nailed spelling (to laughter) and brother.

But when Emilee stumbled with “belive” (believe) and Lily tripped on sandwitch (sandwich), it was all up to Keller, a student in Tracy McFarland’s class.

“The word is shallow,” said student teacher Jessica Willkom, who pronounced words and gave sentence examples upon request.

“Shallow,” Keller repeated, hands thrust into his jean pockets. “S-H-A-L-L-O-W.”  

 “That is correct,” Willkom said.

Exultant, the 7-year-old son of Roxxy Flanagan pulled in his fist from the elbow and soon accepted a trophy as the first winner of the second-grade spelling bee.

“I was stumped on a couple words up there,” said Keller’s mom in the school auditorium. “He does study a little bit.”

Afterward,  PTA vice president Corinna Norton handed out cupcakes and told how the event came to be.

Her son Cameron, envious of some cousins whose Ramona school had a spelling contest, six months ago, asked Mom: “Why don’t we have a spelling bee?”

So as PTA program czar, Norton got one organized. Now she and others are thinking of expanding next year’s bee to other grades.

Helping at the judging table were parents Laurie Michelson and Nancy Reynolds.  Proud of their daughter Lilly were parents Anna Cruz and Rolando Robles—both students at San Diego State, taking pictures of a spellbinding moment.