WAPPINGERS SCHOOL DISTRICT—A Kinry Road School fifth grader described by her mother as an “avid reader” and a “hard-working student” was crowned the Wappingers School District’s elementary level spelling champion March 24.

Emma Sampugnaro, 10, correctly spelled the word “omission” to become the top speller in grades three through five in the WCSD.

“I’m proud of her and I’m sure all of Kinry will be, too,” said John Farrell, Emma’s principal. “She’s a wonderful student.”

Taking part in the fifth annual district elementary bee along with Emma were nine other students in grades three and five (no fourth graders qualified this year) who won the spelling bees held at their individual schools in recent months. Competing were: third graders Anika Kang of Evans and Dominic Locurto of Vassar Road; and fifth graders Nicholas Zachman of Brinckerhoff; Likitha Kumar of Fishkill; Antionette Acbo of Fishkill Plains; Ashna Gupta of Gayhead; Mario Montoya of Myers Corners; Sabrina Sura of Oak Grove; and David Nkansah-Siriboe of Sheafe Road.

The young spellers were quizzed on words from a Scripps national spelling bee list selected by district K-8 English Language Arts coordinator Debbie Weisel. Among them were words like graffiti, parallel, epidermis, epitaph, crustacean, and xylophone.

Three spellers were knocked out in the first round, another in the second round, and two more in the third round, leaving Emma Sampugnaro, Nicholas Zachman, Ashna Gupta, and last year’s champion, Sabrina Sura, competing for one round. In the next two rounds, Ashna and Nick were tripped up by epidermis and legitimate, respectively, leaving only Emma and Sabrina.

According to the rules when the competition comes down to only two spellers, the winner of the bee must spell the word their competitor missed, along with the next word on the list. This rule led to a tense 14-word finale between Sabrina and Emma, starting with “anonymous,” which both girls missed, proceeding the same way through “epitaph” and “instantaneous” and ending only when Sabrina missed “xylophone” and Emma spelled it correctly, following with her proper spelling of “omission.” The girls displayed sportsmanlike behavior by shaking hands and all the students were praised by Weisel for their outstanding representation of their buildings.

Most of the students’ principals were on hand to offer high-fives or, in some cases, consolation to tearful students. Among these was Rick Dominick, principal of Evans Elementary, who offered a hug to eight-year-old Anika Kang, who was distraught over mis-spelling “summit” in the first round. Dominick called Anika a “great, great” student, whose status as a finalist is in itself impressive considering she only came to Evans this school year from South Korea and is a student in the district’s English as a Second Language program.

Success or failure aside, Farrell, the principal of Kinry, said he was pleased to hear that Emma enjoyed the bee.

Emma’s mother, Annie Sampugnaro, who was on hand with Emma’s dad, David, and younger sister Georgia, said, “We’re so proud of her.” She called Emma a “very hard-working student” who reads “books by the hour.”

“Teachers always rave about her,” Sampugnaro said of her daughter, noting how teachers often mention that Emma helps other students in class.

Emma, who was displayed an usual amount of poise and confidence for a 10-year-old while spelling at the microphone, said she was “really happy” to have won the bee, considering that last year she made it as far as her school bee but not to the finals.

An intermediate bee for students in grades six through eight followed the elementary competition.