District spelling bee creates e-x-c-i-t-e-m-e-n-t

VICTORIOUS SMILES- Lori Peters smiles with Thomas Graves after Thomas won the local spelling bee. Peters is his sixth-grade teacher at Conejo Elementary School.

Spelling experts from the 24 elementary and middle schools in the Conejo Valley Unified School District competed for the district champion title at the annual spelling bee on Feb. 21 at Acacia Elementary School.

Several students were eliminated after each round until six spellers remained, who went seven rounds without missing a word and exhausted the first list of words. The word pronouncer, Superintendent Mario Contini, then moved to a more difficult word list.

After 24 rounds in more than an hour, the co-champions were Abi Kodukulla, an eighth-grader from Sequoia Middle School, and Thomas Graves, a sixth-grader in the open classroom program at Conejo Elementary School.

Abi's winning word was "asthma," and Thomas won for "dechlorinate."

The runner-up was Henry Piper, a fifthgrader from Wildwood School.

The two co-winners received trophies, T-shirts, electronic Franklin Spelling Ace and Thesaurus dictionaries, and the book "How to Spell Like a Champ."

The two students will represent the Conejo Valley at the county spelling bee scheduled for March 19 at the Rubicon Theatre, Los Angeles. The winner of the county bee will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., on May 30 and 31.

Thomas' win marks the first time Conejo Elementary School has ever sent a student to the county finals. Three-time former Ventura County spelling champion Kendra Yoshinaga had been a student in the open classroom, but left to be homeschooled before she won her championships.