Cheney student graduating Friday with perfect attendance record

Graduation season is upon us and Friday 250 seniors at Cheney High School will receive a diploma, including Paige Warnick, who has set an impressive record of never missing a day of school.

Warnick has a reputation for being perfect, at least when it comes to attendance. No skipping class, no calling in school. Since the age of five she has never been absent from class.

“It’s always weird when I tell everyone that I have never missed a day of school and they think it’s just for the year, and no I’m like I’ve never missed a day of school and they think I’m crazy,” Warnick said.

She’s had a few close calls but luck was always on her side.

“One night I was insanely sick and had a fever and I had thrown up and was not feeling good and the next morning when I woke up, we miraculously had a snow day,” she said.

While at graduation practice Thursday morning, Warnick was given a letter from her 8th grade self.

“Hey high school goals – never miss a day of school,” she read.

She didn’t always set out to be that way, to have perfect attendance in school.

“By about 3rd grade my parents finally realized ‘Oh she’s never missed a day’ and so after that, it was about being able to keep up with it and schedule things around it,” she said.

She once had surgery strategically scheduled during spring break; her doctor’s appointments are always set after school.

“It’s always been get up, go to school, you know that’s just been the whole entire thing for the past 13 years,” she said.

Warnick’s perfect attendance even surprised the school’s principal.

“It’s a very unique situation that we were made aware of partly through this year,”Cheney High Principal Troy Heuett said. “We are kind of trying to wrap our heads around it too, it’s a pretty amazing feat.”

It was an amazing feat 13 years in the making, and now she’s off to a new chapter of her life right down the road at Eastern Washington University.