Jennifer Stark has set a goal for herself as she prepares to begin classes this fall at the University of Cincinnati: graduate without missing a single day of school.

        It shouldn't be tough for this Western Hills High School valedictorian.

        She just finished 13 years in the Cincinnati Public Schools without missing a single day.

        From her first day as a kindergartner at Midway Elementary, through Covedale Elementary, Dater Junior High and Western Hills High School, Ms. Stark got the same message from her parents: to achieve, you have to be in school.

        And achieve she did.

        Besides being valedictorian, she was senior class vice president, Student Council president, yearbook editor, and in the National and Spanish honor societies.

        School officials said they thought Ms. Stark was the only student in any of CPS' nine high schools to graduate this year with perfect attendance from kindergarten through senior year.

        Tia Leedy, a 2001 graduate of Middletown High School, also achieved that feat.

        “I don't know how I did it, but my parents encouraged me,” said Ms. Stark, 18.

        “I've never been too sick. I even had all the childhood illnesses before I started school.”

        When she had to have ear surgery in the eighth grade the procedure was scheduled after school on a Friday so she would have the weekend to recuperate without missing classes.

        “She's been very healthy and she's very determined and involved,” said her mom, Marilyn Stark.

        She and her husband are teachers, “and attendance is very important to us, but she did this on her own.”

        Mrs. Stark is a teacher at Oyler Elementary. Ms. Stark's dad, Tom Stark, is a teacher at Dater High School.

        Even in her senior year, Ms. Stark said she wasn't tempted to skip school, and was encouraged by her friends.

        “Why mess up your senior year?” she theorized. “I was never pressured from my friends to skip. They thought it was awesome. You know who your friends are if they encourage you.”

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