Redmond, Ore. Fri. Nov. 22, 2013 Jeff Curry, 53, gets equipment ready to limb trees at McCall Elementary School in Redmond Friday. He has worked for the school district since 1999. (ORIG Rob Kerr / The Bulletin)

Jeff Curry takes his lunch in a room named “the Den,” a warehouse-style corner of the Redmond School District’s main building, where there are outdoor lawn chairs for relaxation and two pictures of bears climbing trees for ambience.

The 53-year-old deserves such a sanctuary. Monday through Friday he wakes up at 5 a.m. to get a start on tending 13 schools and 150 acres of turf, plus flower beds, parking lots and playgrounds. Under his supervision are the brothers Sledge — Don and Phil — and two part-time workers, Micki Rodman and Ron Roberts, who make up the entire team standing between the district’s grounds and an army of weeds and pests.

“We’re part of the education process,” Curry said. “We provide safe and nice grounds for students to enjoy. Some of my best memories from school were outside the classroom when I think back on it.”

Some of Curry’s memories may be from the grounds he now tends.

Born in Roseburg, Curry moved to Grants Pass but spent the last two years of high school at Redmond High. After graduating, he went to work at what is now the Bright Wood mill in Redmond, where he worked for “20 years and one week” before joining the district in 1999.

“Back then we had a few more people, but six or seven years ago, when the economy started tanking, the whole district had to make cuts, and we weren’t spared,” Curry said. “The challenge is now we can’t supply all the services we used to. Edging goes wanting, for example. There’s just something about walking down sidewalks that are crisp.”

Curry’s work is dictated by the seasons. In the autumn he tends to leaves and prepares for the freeze.

In the winter, there’s snow and ice removal. In the spring, when everything comes to life, there’s irrigation maintenance and sports fields to prepare, which is anything but simple as different sports call for different grass heights. When it starts warming up, weed control becomes a bigger task.

“People think grounds crews are off for the summer, which is not true,” Curry said. “Think of all that you have to do, simple things like not mowing the grass could get out of control.”

Some of his tasks bring unexpected finds. While cleaning roofs, Curry has encountered the typical childhood debris of footballs and Frisbees, but he has also found a cow magnet, a piece of metal ingested by cows to prevent other, small pieces of metal from hurting their long digestive tracts.

“The hardest thing to deal with may be the call you get in the middle of the night about a mainline break,” Curry said. “But every once in a while, a car will go through a fence. Once one guy went through one side and then out the other during a cop chase. I think the cops went around the field.”

Keeping playgrounds safe requires attention to detail. Swings can have broken S-hooks, and often the bed of wood chips meant to break a fall can get too thin. Curry also works to keep mud out of the classroom by moving equipment like tetherball poles from grassy areas to asphalt.

“I take it very personally when a kid gets hurt due to something we could have fixed,” Curry said.

When asked to reveal his favorite school grounds, Curry was reluctant, but finally specified Redmond High School and its nearby grove of maple trees.

“There’s got to be over 100, and when they leaf out it’s really beautiful,” Curry said. “I don’t like them so much when fall comes.”

Both Phil and Don Sledge say they enjoy working for Curry, who they also knew from stints at the Bright Wood mill.

“It’s great, we have a great working relationship,” Phil said in the Den after a day of installing speed bumps.

Given Curry’s leadership philosophy, the congenial attitude permeating the Den makes sense.

“I’m a guide, sure, but I am also a servant to the crew,” he said. “They need to have what they need to get the job done, and I must serve their needs.”

— Reporter: 541-633-2160, tleeds@bendbulletin.com