BOWMAN SCHOOL'S MOTHERLY VOICE TO SAY GOODBYE.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

At Bowman Continuation High School, a campus for teens who have taken a detour from the mainstream, Peggy Effertz has been the tireless nudge, the practitioner of tough love, for a generation of students.

Effertz has worked at the school so long, co-workers said, it almost seems as though Bowman must have been built around her.

Close, but not quite - the continuation high school opened its doors in 1969 and Effertz came aboard in 1972.

But this month, when she retires from her job as Bowman's attendance and registration secretary, Effertz will take with her the unique brand of motherly badgering that students knew they would have to face if they dared ditch class or faked being sick. She was also the one who, in a pinch, would give them bus fare.

On Friday, friends, co-workers and former Bowman students threw Effertz a retirement bash at a Valencia hotel. The school's creative writing teacher and his class composed her a farewell poem, titled ``She Knows,'' illustrating why Effertz has managed to win the grudging respect of students who, by and large, aren't easily impressed.

An excerpt:

``She knows '72, when she knew all 17 students in the school, their flowing bell-bottoms, their long hair, their platform shoes.''

``She can tell you how they used to grease the `old Bowman' fence to slow the ditchers down.''

``It's the '90s now, and so she knows the shaved heads, the tattoos, the piercings, the same lame excuses year after year.''

``It's her voice that alerts a home: `Your little darling missed period three today.' ''

``She knows 26-1/2 years of alarms and early rising. . . . She was the faithful one, keeping her faith in the Bowman young, when others had surrendered theirs.''

More than student hair styles have changed since Effertz came to work at the continuation high school. Back then, the William S. Hart Union High School District had only a smattering of teens who needed an alternative form of education because of excessive absenteeism, truancy, failing grades, a troubled family life or any number of personal challenges.

For years, Jereann Bowman Continuation High School was on a corner of the Canyon High campus. But a few years ago, a new Bowman High was built on Redview Drive next to district headquarters. And these days, Bowman enrollment hovers around 430, about 3 percent of the district's overall student body, said Principal Richard Artzer.

``She gets here early every morning and she's the wake-up call for many of our students,'' said Mike Nugent, the school's work experience coordinator and student activities director. ``Good morning! It's Bowman High School,'' he said, imitating Effertz. ``It's 7 o'clock and you need to be here today.''

Nugent praised her dedication and steel-trap memory. ``She has handled the transcripts of more than 12,000 students who have come through Bowman. She has basically seen every kid who has been here during the last quarter-century and she still remembers most of them,'' he said.

``Bowman is a microcosm of society - we have the little hoodlums here. We have the kids who have trouble with drugs. We have kids living on their own,'' Nugent added. ``And then we have kids who are good kids, but they just can't handle the 2,000 students at Canyon or Hart. They just don't fit in.''

What drew Effertz to Bowman way back when, what kept her there these 26 years and what will give her twinges of sadness once she retires is her soft spot for the students and her feeling that she could do them some good, she said.

``These kids need more attention. They're not about to go to class and do the things that they need to do without the encouragement,'' Effertz said. The teens at Canyon, Hart, Saugus and Valencia high schools ``don't need that extra push,'' she maintained.

Where did this affinity for the outsider, the misfit, the troubled kid, come from? Effertz said her own children - two sons and a daughter, all now in their 30s - didn't give her headaches like that. They all went to Hart High and graduated from the University of California.

``I cared for my own kids at home. I wanted to know where they were going and who they were with, and I don't think the (Bowman) kids necessarily have that,'' Effertz said.

``It made me want the (Bowman) kids to be more like my own kids, so I treated them like my kids,'' she explained.

``Continuation high school kids generally are here because they have fallen behind in credits. Once they get behind, they lose the get-up-and-go,'' Effertz said. ``They don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, (a way out) of the hole that they've dug themselves into.''

Sometimes all they need is a friendly push in the right direction, she said.

``A lot of people have the misconception that they're all bad apples, and they're not,'' Effertz said. ``They need something that the (mainstream) high schools can't offer, and that doesn't mean they're bad kids.''

Effertz, who will turn 60 in July, said she couldn't pass up the school district's ``golden handshake,'' an early retirement incentive offered to long-time employees. ``They call it the `Hart Hug,' '' she said.

``I figured 60 was a good, round age. I've lived in my house 30 years, and it's paid for,'' she explained, noting she will spend her first year of retirement living up north in the Napa Valley.

Retirement also will give Effertz more time for her hobby of clogging, an Appalachian step dance she learned nine years ago and indulges every Tuesday at the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center. ``It's similar to `Riverdance,' '' she said.

Every year since 1981, Effertz has acted as a host family for exchange students. Over the years, she has opened her home to two dozen British, Japanese and Indonesian students, she said.

Artzer, the Bowman High principal for 12 years, praised Effertz for ``a real genuine concern for kids. If there's one person they remember who helped them get through (school), it's Peg Effertz,'' he said.

But perhaps her calling card is her no-nonsense approach with students who try to smooth-talk their way out of trouble.

``They can't pull anything over on her. She's very thorough,'' Nugent said. ``She'll call home. She'll double-check. She'll call that doctor's office. There's just no pulling the wool over her eyes.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) EFFERTZ

(2) Retiring registration secretary Peggy Effertz, right, hands out readmission notes for students at Bowman Continuation High School.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News