By Jef Rietsma
A Tobey Elementary student completed the 2023-24 academic year without missing a day of school.
Claire Grubbs, daughter of Roman and Erica Grubbs, was a third-grade student who defied the odds and put together an unblemished attendance record. She was recognized during the board of education’s June 10 meeting.
Principal Mike Barwegen said he started to notice Claire and her perfect attendance around February.
“One of the things we’ve made as one of our goals the last couple years is (student) attendance. It’s been a national problem, not just Tobey’s problem,” Barwegen said. “So we wanted to bring back the positive side (of attendance) and recognize good attendance again.”
Barwegen said one component of the school’s regularly scheduled assemblies was acknowledgment of perfect attendance. More than halfway through the school year, Barwegen became aware of a student who was consistently receiving a perfect-attendance award, month after month.
“So, in February, I ran off perfect attendance for the year and we had one,” Barwegen said. “I met her in the hallway and I said ‘Claire, you can’t miss the rest of the year. We need a perfect-attendance student.’”
Without missing any days in the remaining three-plus months of school, Claire accomplished a feat no Tobey student had done in eight years.
“So, it’s quite an accomplishment,” Barwegen said. “She’s not only there every day, she does everything right. A great student and our hope is to get her up front next year and have her challenge everybody so we can have more perfect-attendance students, because that’s so important.”
Claire Grubbs received a framed certificate from Barwegen and a standing ovation from those in attendance.
