Always Present
Somerton student honored for perfect attendance since kindergarten
SOMERTON — Carlos Manjarrez is about to be honored for what few other students his age manage to accomplish.
The Somerton eighth-grader is graduating from eighth grade having had perfect attendance since kindergarten.
Carlos is one of five students of Somerton Middle School who will be honored Thursday at an awards presentation slated for 6:30 at the school located at 1011 N. Somerton Ave.
The four others will be recognized for having achieved perfect attendance from sixth through eighth grade at that school. They are Brandon Vazquez, Abraham Martinez, Fay Rios and Daniel Simental.
“It’s really incredible the way they committed themselves to reaching a goal,” Somerton Middle School Principal Jose Moreno said. “To always be in school requires great character, and they have always found a way to be here.”
For Moreno, the five students counteract any perception that young people don’t want to get educations.
“What they have achieved is really great and it definitely needs to be recognized.”
Carlos, who goes on to Kofa High School in fall, thanks “God and my parents for their support,” he said.
“In the real world, it’s so important not to miss (any opportunity),” Carlos added.
His perfect attendance record began when he entered kindergarten at Orange Grove Elementary School in the Somerton Elementary School District. In 2016, he completed fifth grade at Orange Grove not having missed any school days. As a reward for that achievement, he was presented a new bicycle.
“I never had to fight with him to get up to go to school,” his mother, Juanita Manjarrez, said at the time.
Carlos said math is his favorite subject in school and that playing baseball is his passion outside the classroom. Apart from maintaining a perfect attendance record, he said his goal at Kofa is to play for the school’s team.
In the fall, he will join his older sister, who is already enrolled at Kofa.
Carlos’ mother said she and her husband, Carlos, are proud of their children’s academic accomplishments.
“We have always told them they can achieve what they propose for themselves, and that they have to finish what they start.”