Peggy Rogers might be a school secretary at Helias Catholic High School, but she openly admits that there is another title that she answers to just as readily on a daily basis.
"Mother to all," she said with a smile.
Whether it is to call home to leave sick for the day, to pick up a gift on Valentine's Day from that significant other or to check back into school from a trip to the dentist's office, Rogers is one of the first people a student sees. But she will be the first to tell you that the job is never as simple as just being the gateway for students.
"I lecture (the students) sometimes as I feel the need, even if it's not my business and I don't know them that well," Rogers said. "Kids will go home sick and I will say "It's a Friday night. That means you don't go out.' And they will just look at me. You don't go out on Friday night if you go home sick."
When the school installed the remote lock system - which can only be opened when an individual is buzzed in by someone at the main office - Rogers said she saw that as an opportunity to have a little fun with students and visitors alike.
"I always am trying to make the kids sing (before they get to come in)," Rogers said. "During Christmas time, I was making them sing "Jingle Bells.' Older people, sometimes I make them sing "Peg 'O My Heart.'"
Things like that, Rogers said, are what made the job seem like the ideal position for her from the moment she took it in the spring of 2003. She jokes, however, that not everyone in her household might have been quite as excited as she was when it was clear she would be leaving her secretary's position at St. Joseph's Cathedral School.
"I had helped at St. Joe's volunteering and they offered me a job part time," Rogers said. "That was Kevin (my oldest son's) eighth-grade year. And then, I came over here in May of 2003 to bring all of the eighth-grade records to Kathy Gerstner at the window and Denny Hughes … asked if I wanted to work here.
"Finally, when I decided to tell my kids, I said, 'Kevin, I've got some news for you. I'm moving to Helias to be secretary your senior year and he goes 'You've got to be kidding me! What, are you going to go to college, too?'"
Rogers said that, out of all the aspects that come with the job, her favorite is the relationships she builds in the office on a daily basis. She said that while she enjoys the relationships with the other ladies in the office - who she is quick to point out work just as hard, if not harder than she does - it is the relationships with the students that are her favorites.
Those relationships have resulted in plenty of great stories. Rogers said some of her favorites have come from the reasons some particularly clever students come up with for why they are tardy for class.
"The best one, and I will never forget it, was Brad Shimmens," Rogers said. "Somebody fell asleep at the intersection in front of him. I'm like, 'Bradley, come on. Are you serious?' and he was like, 'I swear to God, they fell asleep and everybody was trying to get around them and I am late.'
"Or, there was Mark Mueller. 'Whatever will work, Mrs. Rogers. You are looking lovely today. You have a great day.' And I would say, 'Sorry, tardy is tardy.'"
But even with all of the fun and interesting interactions Rogers said she has every day, she admits that there is one regret that comes with it all.
"You know what I am most disappointed in?" Rogers asked. "That I didn't start writing all of this stuff down. Just a blank notebook to write down some of the great things, some of the crazy things that I hear on a daily basis. I could have been writing a book someday. It's crazy."