Reed Hodges, a sixth grader at Coosa Middle School, was the top speller in the Floyd County School system’s annual Spelling Bee, held on Friday, February 13, 2009, at 9:30 a.m. in the Board Room at the Board of Education office on Riverside Parkway . Hodges and ten other individual school spelling champions, from schools with grades 4-8, participated in the Floyd County Schools Spelling Bee. Prashani Samaraweera, from Garden Lakes Elementary School, was the runner-up in the competition.  

Hodges looked confident throughout the spelling competition but admitted afterward that today was the first time he had heard several of the words he was asked to spell.  “I have never heard of Earthenware and I was really not sure about easel,” Hodges said.  “I like to break words down into syllables and spell them and it worked for me today.”   The winning words for Hodges were renovate and falsetto.   

Hodges put in a lot of study time getting ready to compete in the academic spell-off.  He said, “I spent a lot of time studying with my mother.  She calls out words to me and I spell them.”  Reed’s mother Lynn Hodges credited his spelling prowess to a love for reading.  She said, “We named him Reed and I think we did well there.”   

Hodges received a plaque to signify his accomplishment from the Floyd County Association of Educators, sponsor of the event.  Hodges will represent Floyd County Schools in the District Spelling Bee while Samaraweera will serve as an alternate.  The district event will be held on Saturday, February 28, 2009 at the Floyd County Board of Education Office. The District Spelling Bee will begin at 10:00 a.m. and will feature the top spellers from school systems in District One.

School spelling champions participating in the Floyd County Spelling Bee were: Alto Park Elementary, Claudia Wooten; Armuchee Elementary, Connor Vinson; Armuchee Middle, Haley Patterson; Cave Spring Elementary, Austin Mink; Coosa Middle School, Reed Hodges; Garden Lakes Elementary, Prashani Samaraweera; Johnson Elementary, Dwight Hall; Model Elementary, Asia Hughes; Model Middle School, Blake Zuker; Pepperell Elementary, Brent Lane; Pepperell Middle School, Bethany Blalock.