CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Between kindergarten and 12th grade, there are more than 2,300 days of class public school students are expected to attend. For most of them, they will miss a day because of illness among other reasons.
Joseph Clark, a South Charleston High School senior, is not one of those kids.
For 13 years, Clark was at either Ruthlawn Elementary, South Charleston Middle or South Charleston High schools every single one of those days. On Thursday, the county’s Board of Education recognized Clark for having perfect attendance.
Clark, 18, said the idea started at the encouragement of his mother.
“Whenever I had gone a few weeks without missing a day of school, she suggested to me it would be cool if I didn’t miss a day of school for the rest of kindergarten,” he said. “Then that happened in first grade and second grade and third grade and so on. Eventually, I just decided not to miss a day of school.”
Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Dr. Ron Duerring presented Clark with a plaque honoring his feat.
“Presented to Joseph S. Clark,” it read. “Perfect attendance, kindergarten through twelfth grade.”
Clark noted the accomplishment could have possibly not happened; during the 2009 swine flu epidemic, most of Clark’s fifth-grade classmates missed school.
“I was sort of afraid I was going to get it and had to miss school,” he said.
But Clark was fortunate; he did not get sick.
“A lot of the time, whenever I got seriously ill, it was over a break of some kind like spring break or Christmas break,” he said. “Other than that, (it was) a minor cold or something. Nothing really to keep me from going to school.”
Duerring also noted Clark’s academic achievements during the plaque presentation. Clark has a 4.8 weighted GPA and a International Baccalaureate diploma.
According to Clark, he is a member of multiple robotics clubs at South Charleston High School. He has participated in the Zero Robotics competition hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Vex Robotics Team and Cube Set Club.
Clark said there were times in high school where he became nervous about missing a day, but he did not lose motivation.
“I made it this far,” he recalled thinking to himself. “It would be a shame to mess it up at this point.”
Clark will attend the University of Kentucky in the fall on a National Merit Scholarship, and plans to study computer engineering.