Winthrop School earns mathlete banner

BRIDGEPORT — The format may have changed. The top result did not.

After four days of online competition, Winthrop School has retained the title — and mathelete banner — of middle school math champions in the district.

Multicultural Magnet School came in second place and Blackham School placed third.

Individual honors were also given to the three mathletes with the highest scores: Ricardo Marin, and Peter Istfanous, both Winthrop eighth graders, and Mateus Pedrazzoli, a seventh grader from Multicultural Magnet.

The annual competition pits the best seventh and eighth grade math minds from 16 schools. It is normally held in person but this year involved several preliminary online rounds before finals, also online, were held on Friday.

Hermino Planas, a director of elementary education for the district who is in charge of math, said the new format posed a few challenges and minor technology glitches but there was a backup plan to make sure everyone could read the questions and send answers using the Microsoft Teams platform.

“There were no issues that inhibited students from fully participating and sending their answers.,” Planas said.

In addition to Planas and math teachers from participating schools, the tournament was moderated by Pedro Vazquez, a retired district teacher, and organized by Millie Poma, an administrative assistant.

In addition to the banner, schools that placed get trophies. The three top students receive TI Graphing Calculator.