PEA RIDGE — When she graduated from Pea Ridge High School in 1967, Patty Dean was one of 33 seniors. Little did she know she would be retiring from the very same school that had more than quadrupled in size in the four decades that followed.

Patty Dean Robinson Curtis is retiring the end of this month as school district treasurer. Respected and liked by her co-workers, she was honored at a luncheon recently and given a memory quilt with 56 hand-decorated squares.

Curtis has watched the school grow and change from every perspective imaginable - as a student, the mother of students and an employee.

She was a student at Pea Ridge, graduating from the old building before the “new” elementary (now known as the old school) was constructed.

Five months after graduation, she married Jim Robinson. They had two children - James and Angela. Robinson died in 1988.

Four years later, she married Rex Curtis, who had two children.

Together, they have 12 grandchildren.

“I worked first as a nurses’ aide at St. Mary’s,” Curtis recalled, saying she considered becoming an EKG technician. But, she started in the school system when the children were young in order to have the same hours her children had.

Curtis said she began working in the lunchroom in 1979 or 1980 so she could be home with the children when they were home. “I washed dishes in the old elementary,” she said. “I had the most fun working with Mary Alice Pitts and Margie Howell. Roy Roe was the superintendent.”

Later, she became the secretary to the high school principal, Bill Alverez. When he became the superintendent, she moved to the superintendent’s office about 1983. She took care of accounts payable.

“Back then, the Benton County treasurer was the school district treasurer,” she said. “Marvin Higginbottom decided we needed to be our own treasurer.”

“Joyce (McMath, the other office employee) didn’t want to do it, so I was,” she said. “Anything new the state department assigned to the district treasurer, Ilearned.”

Curtis has taken many classes on financial software and attended many workshops, she said.

Over the years, the technology has changed and she has adapted. The workload has increased as the district has grown. Not only have the number of students increased, but so has the number of staff and the budget - both income and expenses.

Bonnie Collville was hired last year to replace Curtis. The two have worked together closely this past year to ensure a smooth transition. The school’s fiscal year begins July 1.

“I’ve got a lot of it memorized,” Patty said quietly, smiling, as she recalled the many codes that refer to various accounting categories.

Patty remembered one time digging for five days to find the reason an account wasn’t balancing. She works with the auditors annually when they come for four to six weeks to audit the school district.

“We’ve always had good audits,” she said.

She has worked under six different superintendents - Roy Roe, Dr. James Carlton, William Alvarez, Marvin Higginbottom , Roy Norville, Dr. Virgil Freeman and Mike Van Dyke.

She said the easiest of her bosses to work with is the current one, Van Dyke, who is leaving the same time she is.

Van Dyke accepted the directorship of the Northwest Arkansas Educational Cooperative.

“As logn as you do your job,” Curtis said of her boss, “there’s no problem.”

She remembers getting the superintendent’s office on a computer network while Marvin Higginbottom was superintendent. She and Joyce were both hooked up to a printer. All the reports were done on paper.

“There’s none of that now,” she said, commenting on the difference with computer programs.

“We are in better financial shape than we’ve ever been,” Curtis said of the district in 2011, attributing the success to good management and increased revenues.

“He (Van Dyke) has a lot of financial knowledge. He goes to legislative meetings and knows lots of laws that pertain to schools,” she said.

As to the growth and changes, she said: “I’m amazed, just amazed.

“I had a lot of fun in that old school,” she said. Curtis remembered walking to school from her home on Greene Street. “I was the oldest of six children - four girls and two boys - and never rode the bus.”

“The best thing about my job is all the peole I work with - the teachers, ther girls in the office - Pea Ridge school has been really good to me,” she said.

Curtis’ husband has been retired from the Rogers post office almost three years. She said they don’t have any special plans, but she looks forward to sleeping in.

Special memories include “when we have lunch together in Mr. Van Dyke’s office around the big round table. We bring our own lunch ... times like birthdays.”

Sports, Pages 7 on 06/22/2011