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Kathy Nelson: How Do You Spell Thank You?

For Kathy Nelson, the question is, “How do you spell ‘Thank You?’” On March 12, Kathy will head up Branford Parks & Recreation’s newly named Jeannette A. Palluzzi Annual Memorial Spelling Bee. Palluzzi, who passed away in 2021, was Kathy’s great friend, mentor and the undisputed leader of the annual bee, says Kathy, who is thankful to have volunteered by her side.

Kathy, who retired in 2014 after 38 ½ years as a Tisko Elementary School teacher, was still involved in her teaching career when she first began volunteering as a bee judge at the invitation of Palluzzi, whom Kathy and so many others fondly knew as “Jay.”

“I could cry, thinking about Jay,” says Kathy. “I was just updating the words and thinking, ‘How am I going to get through this without Jay Palluzzi sitting by my side?’ This is the first time I’m going to be there without her, and I’m going to feel her absence. She was a dear friend.”

Due to COVID, it’s been two years since the bee was last held in 2019. The bee invites students in grades 3 to 12 and also includes an adult contest. Spellers will compete on Saturday, March 12 at the Joe Trapasso Community House, 46 Church Street, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Registration is open now at branfordrecreation.org or by calling 203-488-8304. Day-of registration is also welcome.

Branford Parks & Recreation Director Alex Palluzzi, Jr., says he was touched to learn from his staff that the bee would be named in honor of his mom. A former Branford Public Schools (BPS) educator, Jay also taught swimming for Branford Parks & Recreation in the early 1970s. As a stay-at-home mom, she spent nights attending teaching college. She raised her four boys in Branford with her husband, Alex Palluzzi, Sr., who also passed away in 2021.

For at least 40 years and probably more, Jay Palluzzi volunteered her time to run Branford Parks & Recreation’s Spelling Bee, her son recalls. When he and his brothers were growing up, “she would practice on us. We were pretty good spellers,” says Palluzzi. “She was always pretty big on pronunciation. We couldn’t mumble!”

She also brought in many educational peers to help her with the bee, he says. Volunteers of the early years included the late Lenora Isentadt, who came out of retirement to assist Jay with teaching English as a second language at Branford High School. Over the past 20 years or so, Kathy had worked closely with Jay on the bee, he says.

“Kathy Nelson is from the same camp as my mom,” says Palluzzi. “They always wanted to kids to improve themselves in their spelling and reading, so they could have a good basis for future academic success.”

Taking On the Bee

Kathy says she hopes she can contribute even some small part of the impressive work Jay Palluzzi put in to make each bee fun and successful.

“Jay was in charge of it all. She asked me to help her out, and I did,” says Kathy. “But I was more or less her assistant. She was the head of it all.”

Once upon a time, the bee even hosted 2nd graders, but Kathy well remembers why that changed.

“It was my first or second year as a judge, and I remember putting our heads together, because to tell a 2nd-grader, ‘I’m sorry, that’s not correct’—some of them would cry. We realized they were a bit too young to handle it. So we decided we would start with 3rd graders, and it’s been that way ever since.”

The words level up in difficulty by grade, with added twists as the grades progress. Fourth graders may encounter homophones, which sound the same but are spelled differently, like “whether” versus “weather” and “through” versus “threw.”

“Those types of words really depend on the judge’s use of the word in a sentence,” says Kathy, adding, “and when you get to the adult words, they’re pretty tough!”

But not too tough, Kathy promises. That being said, while it’s all being done in good fun, there’s no doubt standing up to spell out loud can even shake up a grown-up.

“I remember, for one of the adults, the word was ‘bookkeeper.’ And he was a bookkeeper in real life, and he left out a ‘k.’ He couldn’t believe he did it!” Kathy shares.

Adults who may not have registered in advance (such as moms and dads in the audience that day, Kathy hints) are welcome to sign up on the spot to join in the fun, Kathy notes.

“It’s so much fun. One year, we had a husband and a wife, and the wife won!” Kathy says.

Kathy and her husband, John, married and moved to Branford in 1975, shortly after she started teaching at Tisko (then known as Damascus Elementary School). The couple met growing up in New Britain. Now retired, John Nelson was a Branford elementary physical education teacher of many years, beginning in 1973, when the work required visiting the town’s then-four elementary schools.

“I started teaching in December of 1974,” says Kathy of her BPS career. “I taught with a wonderful colleague, Geri Nicholson. I took over for a teacher who was pregnant, and I was fresh out of college. Coming in the middle of the year, with a class that’s already established, is not easy! Geri helped me through,” says Kathy.

Nicholson and another educational peer, Judy Spaar, were also brought into the bee judging hive by Jay, Kathy notes. Kathy will run this year’s bee with help from Spaar as well as retired Tisko teacher Diane Kaczynski and a current BPS elementary educator and past bee judge Scott Fonicello.

“They’re all wonderful,” says Kathy.

While she can’t reveal the words the judges are planning to pronounce on March 12, Kathy notes they are taken from BPS curriculum for each competing grade level. For kids who want to get in some practice, Kathy suggests, “just go through the words in the language arts curriculum that they have; think of the rules that teachers have taught them about doubling consonants and about endings and their vowels; and just don’t be nervous! Enjoy the time. We really want to make it a relaxed atmosphere.”

A Lifetime of Teaching

A Branford Hall of Fame inductee, during her teaching career, Kathy was a Branford Education Association (BEA) representative and BEA toy drive representative, active in the school’s PTA, and organized and co-chaired, along with her colleague and friend, Tisko kindergarten teacher Sharon MacKinnel (now retired), an annual elementary school softball game that ultimately raised more than $25,000 to assist charitable causes including Joey Children’s Fund, Childhood Leukemia Foundation, and the Branford-based Myelin Project.

In November of 1983, Kathy helped plan the festivities to honor the re-dedication of Damascus School to become the Mary R. Tisko School. In fact, early in her career, Kathy worked with Tisko’s namesake, Mary R. Tisko, who was then the teaching principal at Damascus School. Kathy taught 2nd and 1st grade for a few years before she started teaching kindergarten in 1985 through retiring in 2014.

As a new teacher, Kathy began a Super Reader Club at her school. Prior to the pandemic, Kathy was still returning to Tisko to read to kids, as a volunteer. Through her years as an elementary teacher, Kathy always knew that kids could say the darnedest things, and they haven’t changed a bit, she adds.

“I was talking to one of the classes and I said how I was a retired teacher. And I said, ‘Does anyone know what it means to be retired?’ And one of the little boys said, ‘Yes, it means when you get old and you can’t work anymore.’ It was so cute!”

Kathy’s granddaughter, Paityn, now in middle school, attended Tisko as an elementary student; while Kathy’s daughter, Sarah, is now a paraprofessional at Tisko.

“It’s nice to think of that, the three generations we’ve had at Tisko,” says Kathy, adding she feels the teachers and paraprofessoinals who have been working to educate students during the pandemic are “super heroes.”

“I’ve seen what my former colleagues have done and what my daughter has done helping the students, and it’s unbelievable. They work so hard,” she says. “They are super heroes.”