Students Micaela Maaske and Emily Greenwood have attended Oakdale schools all their lives and each recently completed the sixth grade. One was at Magnolia the other at Sierra View and somehow each managed to never miss a day of school.

While it’s not the first time that such a feat has happened in Oakdale schools, it doesn’t happen very often.

“It’s certainly not a common occurrence to have someone with perfect attendance throughout their elementary school career, and we’re very proud of Micaela,” said Magnolia Elementary School Principal Julie Minabe.

They are both athletically inclined girls and actually know each other, as they were once teammates on a competitive travel softball team. Now, they play for different travel softball teams but they also have each played basketball and soccer in the past.

Maaske said that she never really thought of her perfect attendance as a big deal.

“I eat right, played sports, always went to bed on time,” she said of her secret to good health.

She added that once she broke her arm in the second grade when she fell off her bike, but she still went to school the next day.

“It was really important to me to know what was happening in school,” Maaske said.

She added that she and her family would usually just take trips when there was time off from school such as Easter or summer, and take softball trips on the weekends.

Maaske’s younger sister just completed third grade at Magnolia and she also hasn’t missed a day of school.

Greenwood said that she just managed to stay very healthy, but she had a certain amount of determination as well.

“I never got sick. I only got sick on the weekends,” she said. “…We didn’t plan very many trips because I didn’t want to miss any school.”

She said she first realized that she hadn’t missed any school and that it was a pretty big deal when she was in the third grade.

“It became a goal for me and I didn’t want to miss it,” Greenwood said. “I didn’t want to miss school at all.”