Pacific’s 2019 school attendance challenge sets new records

Students at STEAM Academy at River Islands being honored during an assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

More than 43,000 San Joaquin County students kicked off the school year with perfect attendance as part of University of the Pacific's Beyond Our Gates Every Day Counts challenge — making this year’s event the most successful to date.

Every Day Counts was created in 2013 to get the county’s students, families and educators to focus on school attendance from the start of the school year.

This year, 151 San Joaquin County schools participated and 43,415 pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students had perfect attendance in September, which is National Attendance Awareness Month. This is a significant increase from 2018, when 122 schools registered for the challenge and 35,122 students had perfect attendance. In 2017, there were 82 registered schools and 22,130 students.

A total of 47.8% of all students at registered public pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade schools in San Joaquin County achieved perfect attendance.

STEAM Academy at River Islands is the overall winner of the challenge. The school had 500 of 567 students (88.2%) with perfect attendance during September. The STEAM school community was honored at an assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 5, which included the presentation of a traveling trophy to keep for the next year.

Rounding out the Top 10:

2. Farmington Elementary (Escalon Unified) 80.7%
3. Alex G. Spanos Elementary (Stockton Unified) 79.9%
4. Collegeville Elementary (Escalon Unified) 75.5%
5. Pulliam Elementary (Stockton Unified) 73.9%
6. Monte Vista Middle (Tracy Unified) 72.8%
7. Stallworth Charter School 71.0%
8. Lottie Grunsky Elementary (Stockton Unified) 69.8%
9. Jefferson Elementary (Jefferson Schools) 69.5%
10. Victor Elementary (Lodi Unified) 68.8%

All students who had perfect attendance received a Powercat bookmark, an orange “perfect attendance” wristband, and vouchers for Pacific basketball and Stockton Heat hockey tickets. Each school also received a Kindle 7 Fire electronic reader to raffle to one lucky student. 

Stockton Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy praised the challenge in an interview with The Record.

“It also shows that it is possible at that scale,” Deasy said. “The quality of education and of the community in schools is changing dramatically — students want to be in school and we need to be thankful for our teachers, principals and support staff.”

The Office of External Relations — Community Relations Director Mike Klocke and Community Engagement Manager Lisa Douglass – administers the challenge. Janae Reinhardt of the President’s Office provides organizational and technical support.