Perfect Attendance

WOULDN'T YOU love to see your son or daughter go through an entire year of school without missing a day? Or have perfect attendance during middle school? Could you ever dream that one of your children could attend all 13 years of school with perfect attendance? Well, that's what Lauren Gray did. Lauren, a senior at Glenelg High School, has had perfect attendance during her 13 years in Howard County public schools. Last week, at an awards ceremony at her school, she was honored with a plaque and certificate for her accomplishment.

Sister Agnes Miriam Hradsky, a retired teacher and member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame for 61 years, died of pneumonia Nov. 3 at Maria Health Care Center, her order's motherhouse in Woodbrook. She was 95. Agnes Beatrice Hradsky was born in Baltimore to Czechoslovakian parents who had arrived in the United States during their teens. She grew up on Collington Avenue and attended St. Wenceslaus Catholic School, taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. In 1928 she graduated from grammar school with perfect attendance and went on to the Institute of Notre Dame.

Life is sometimes a puzzlement.The residents of the San Fernando Valley in California are still devastated by the aftermath of the earthquake. Only the tremors moved fast.I have wondered how and why it was possible for the media, politicians and Federal Emergency Management Agency to travel to the area within hours but not load their planes with food, water and essentials to be distributed immediately upon arrival.Paperwork and promises do not feed children when they are hungry or help heal wounds and suffering.

The three students who share one of the biggest accomplishments in Baltimore County this year say they never sought to be perfect. They just tried to be present. Carly Ordak, Danielle Spyridakos and Renee Yusuff graduated Tuesday from Eastern Technical High School with perfect attendance records, having attended school every day from kindergarten through 12th grade. They were the only students in Baltimore County to graduate this year having done that. "I think this is an incredible accomplishment," said Tom Evans, principal of Eastern Tech.

What could be a better reward for a student who comes to school every day than a set of wheels to get there?South Carroll High School Principal David Booz will soon begin drawings to give away three cars that are being refurbished by the school's Auto Technology II class. The first will be for perfect attendance, and at least one of the other two will be limited to students who have a 4.0 grade point average.The first drawing, for a 1986 Ford Taurus, will be for students who had perfect attendance last school year.

Great oaks from little acorns grow, the proverb says, and Theresa Gwynn knows it's true.About six years ago, Gwynn's three sons faced peer pressure to start skipping school in their South Baltimore neighborhood. She fought back with pressure of her own -- G. I. Joe action figures and free pizza if they had perfect attendance. It worked.So she offered her "G. I. Joe rewards" to her sons' elementary and middle schools. And that worked so well that she took her idea to five other schools in Cherry Hill.

The news hit Stephen Joseph Schap's family and friends like a bomb: Stephen, the fresh-faced, kind and considerate kid they'd watched grow up in Gardenville was in a military prison in Germany, charged with commiting a murder.Longtime family friend Mike Cozzubo heard the news from Stephen's mother, Marianne.Stephen, a 26-year-old Army sergeant stationed in Germany, allegedly decapitated a man he suspected of sleeping with his wife."The alleged deed that occurred, I just cannot think that Stephen is a part of it," said Mr. Cozzubo of Towson.

Marriott Food Service and St. John's College treated 45 Annapolis Elementary School pupils to ice cream sundaes in recognition of their perfect attendance during national testing days at their school.The businesses were two of the 15 local businesses that provided resources for area schools through the Business/Education Clearinghouse, a Greater Annapolis Chamber of Commerce committee.The clearinghouse is the first project put into place by the chamber's Education Committee, which was established in response to Gov. William Donald Schaefer's challenge to the business community to become involved with the public schools.

About 30 students clacked away their waning minutes of class time in Harlem Park Middle School's darkened computer lab, their faces illuminated by the colorful computer games' graphics.Though the students were hard at play, lab manager Deborah Hardy assured guests that the students' 15 minutes of free time was a reward for finishing 30 minutes of algebra.The reward system is a hallmark at Harlem Park, where 98 of 1,212 students have achieved perfect attendance so far this school year, about 70 more than last year.

The MTA has extended an apology to Baltimore school officials, students, and parents for a mix up resulting from an erroneous report that city schools were closed yesterday because of the weather.Reacting to the bad information, some bus drivers failed to stop for students at bus stops, and other drivers told students to get off of buses.School officials were unable to determine how many students were affected by the foul up. About 30,000 students ride the MTA daily.Mass Transit Administration spokeswoman Dianna Rosborough said the erroneous information was dispatched to the drivers about 8:15 a.m and was corrected about 20 minutes later.

At a college in a small town in Ghana where students don't have textbooks, or books of any sort actually, the American professor faced a quandary. Some of the books she kept for them, in a makeshift, bricks-and-boards library in her office, were getting too old and tattered for lending out, but how could she throw them away? So she piled them under a sign saying that any of her students with perfect attendance could take one to keep. "Each one was more worn than the next -- no cover, raggedy, dog-eared -- and yet students would take 20 minutes to pick through them," Sister Kathleen Feeley said.

McDaniel College to honor King McDaniel College will recognize the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a program featuring performance artist and actor Jim Lucas at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow in McDaniel College's WMC Alumni Hall. The celebration will include musical presentations, a candle lighting ceremony, awards and recitations and interpretive readings depicting King's life by Lucas. The public is welcome. Information: 410-857-2294. Leaders chosen for Carroll delegation Maryland House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (District 29-C)

They've shown up with the sniffles. They've worked through sore throats. They've never let a little winter cold or a yearning to avoid a test or fudge a missed homework assignment keep them home. For at least the past 225 days of school, 16 Medfield Heights Elementary pupils have not skipped a day of class. Yesterday, Ravens fullback Sam Gash treated them and their parents, grandparents and teachers to a football game for their efforts. "It's a great way for kids to see how important school is," said Katie Becker, who teaches fourth- and fifth-grade math at Medfield Heights.

WHEN JASMINE Evans entered kindergarten in the fall of 1988, she began a streak a la Cal Ripken Jr. After 13 school years, this Hammond High School senior has not missed a single day of school. Ever. "Even to have four years of perfect high school attendance is unusual," said Phyllis Parker of the public information office for Howard County schools. Her informal survey of the county's high schools revealed that perfect attendance from kindergarten through 12th grade "is a very rare occurrence."

Over the years, there were mornings they didn't want to go. They had colds, headaches, stomach pains. Sometimes they sat up in bed, awake in a woozy daze, wondering what would happen if, just this once, they stayed home. But in 13 years of school, Noelle Mack, Gregory Garrison, Tiffany Turan and Daniel Marshall never found out. The four Anne Arundel County seniors have never missed a day of school. By the district's count, they've attended class all 2,340 days that school has been held since they entered kindergarten in the late 1980s.

WOULDN'T YOU love to see your son or daughter go through an entire year of school without missing a day? Or have perfect attendance during middle school? Could you ever dream that one of your children could attend all 13 years of school with perfect attendance? Well, that's what Lauren Gray did. Lauren, a senior at Glenelg High School, has had perfect attendance during her 13 years in Howard County public schools. Last week, at an awards ceremony at her school, she was honored with a plaque and certificate for her accomplishment.

Melissa Maisch had dreamed of this moment: The plush limousine sliding to a stop, the flash of cameras, the rows of dignitaries and reporters shouting questions.It was all there yesterday morning when the 16-year-old emerged from a sleek white limo in front of Old Mill High School."Oh, gosh!" she gasped, hugging her entourage, school friends Jennifer Laning and Karl Clodfelter, who tumbled out after her. "I feel like princess of the morning!"Maisch's name was selected in a random drawing of nearly 900 students who had perfect school attendance this month.

McDaniel College to honor King McDaniel College will recognize the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a program featuring performance artist and actor Jim Lucas at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow in McDaniel College's WMC Alumni Hall. The celebration will include musical presentations, a candle lighting ceremony, awards and recitations and interpretive readings depicting King's life by Lucas. The public is welcome. Information: 410-857-2294. Leaders chosen for Carroll delegation Maryland House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (District 29-C)

Maj. James Melvin Austin will work his last shift for the Westminster Police Department in 12 days and mosey into retirement, never having missed a day in 30 years.In case anyone is counting, the 61-year-old officer hasn't missed a day of work or school since 1947, when he was 10 years old. He drove a bread delivery truck for 12 years before joining the police force in 1969.He also worked on a milk truck before before going to classes at the former Taneytown High School. He graduated in 1957.

School funding raises questions across nationBrian Sullam asks in his column "Tax cap is the real bone of contention for schools" (June 7), whether Anne Arundel wants to follow the example of California "where Proposition 13 transformed the nation's best school system into one of the worst?"Anne Arundel County's rigid tax cap is the problem. Changing it would be difficult.Try Vermont's approach? Act 60 in Vermont would replace the present system where local property taxes pay for local education.