Updated March 2021
A Kyrene speller has placed in the top ten at the Arizona State Spelling Bee. Drew Passmonick, a 7th grade student from Kyrene Digital Academy (KDA), participated in the State Bee on Saturday, March 20. The competition consisted of 26 spellers from across Arizona. The first round was an online test in which spellers needed to spell 50 words in 25 minutes. Drew and nine other spellers qualified to then proceed on to the oral section of the competition, held in rounds through Zoom.
Kyrene School District is extremely proud of Drew for reaching this level and congratulates all Kyrene students who participated in school, district or regional Bees.
Updated February 2021
Kyrene speller Drew Passmonick has advanced to the State Bee. A tiebreaker test was needed due to a three way tie for 2nd place, and Drew secured the spot. Drew will join the first place speller in representing our region in the Arizona State Spelling Bee in March. Lincoln Trembath of Kyrene de los Lagos placed in fourth overall.
Posted January 2021
Kyrene’s annual District Spelling Bee may have taken a different format this year, but students were still eager to put their knowledge to the test and out-spell their peers.
27 finalists from Kyrene’s elementary, middle and K-8 campuses participated in the virtual Bee. Spellers had 24 hours to complete the online test developed by the Scripps National Spelling Bee organization. During the test, students tackled difficult words such as “kaleidoscope,” “quiescence” and “harrumph.”
Drew Passmonick, a 7th grade student from Kyrene Digital Academy (KDA), earned the title of District Bee Champion. In second place was Lincoln Trembath, a 5th grade student from Kyrene de los Lagos, and tying for third place were Kyrene de los Cerritos 5th grader Conner Trynosky and KDA 5th grader Christopher Humanski. All four students advanced to the Regional Bee.
Congratulations, spellers!
