WCHS Grad Never Missed A Day – EverWith his final school year over, one Warsaw Community High School senior has accomplished something few others have.
Kodi Holle, 18, Mentone, did not miss a day of school during the last 13 years.
Not only has he never missed a day, he hasn’t even been late to class. Ever.
The last time that happened at WCHS was in 2002 when student Jeremy Pifer accomplished the same feat.
WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said he couldn’t remember it happening in the years he worked for the district.
“Most kids have something come up – an orthodontist appointment, they catch the flu sometimes,” he said.
Kodi recently was honored at WCHS’s convocation, where school officials awarded him a new laptop.
Kodi previously won two cars for his perfect attendance during his school career. WCHS holds a drawing every year for perfect attendance students to win a car.
“I always told him that if he was too sick they’d send him home,” Brandy Holle, his mother said. Brandy said motivating him to have perfect attendance was her way of preparing him for a future in college and a job.
“It shows he’s going to be there for his family. It shows he can accomplish anything he puts his mind to,” Brandy said.
She never had to push him too much to go to school. She would wake him up when he was in elementary school, but soon started to make him responsible for himself and he woke himself up.
“He always wanted to go to school,” Brandy said. “He was always sociable.”
She said she always scheduled Kodi’s doctor appointments after school and on weekends. Even when her fiance died, she scheduled the funeral on Saturday so Kodi would not miss school.
Kodi said it was just business as usual to go to school every day.
“It’s not that hard,” Kodi said. There were some classes he would rather not go to, but he still tried to learn.
“You might sit through a boring lecture, but you're still learning something,” he said.
Brandy said Kodi would always go to high school an hour or so earlier to hang out with friends.
“One time we were running behind and his friends began to worry about whether Kodi would show up,” she said.
The closet Kodi ever came to missing a day of school was when he caught strep throat in February. He toughed it out for five periods and convinced the school staff to let him stay. He went and got a shot so he could go to school the next day without infecting anyone.
“He is terrified of needles,” Brandy said.
She said Kodi getting sick wasn’t an issue usually as he just doesn’t get sick often.
Winning his first car during his freshman year kept him at WCHS. The family had moved to Talma and his mother wouldn’t have been able to drive him to Warsaw every day.
The second car he won, during his junior year, also came just in the nick of time. A week later, the first car he won broke down. He is still driving the PT Cruiser he won his junior year.
Kodi intends to attend University of Purdue Fort Wayne and major in civil engineering.
