Krell retires from driving after over 20 years

KateLynn Slaamot
NLJ Correspondent
 
Bev Krell, veteran bus driver for Weston County School District No. 1, has retired after more than 20 years of safely transporting children on the route north of town past Four Corners. 
Krell first got into bus driving because her late husband, Gary, drove bus for the school for 15 years. Krell got her commercial driver’s license in 1995 and started subbing for Gary’s Four Corners route and Jim Perino’s Oil Creek route. In about 2000, she took over Gary’s route completely. 
Krell laughed. 
“I couldn’t win the lottery, but I could win the bus route,” she said. 
Krell noted that she’s had a bus parked in her driveway for about 35 years, counting the years both she and her husband drove. Initially, she drove a 60-passenger bus, but that was eventually downsized to a 23-passenger because there were fewer children on the rural route. 
“It’s pretty rough up here in the winter,” Krell said, noting the dangerous conditions under which she often had to drive in the winter. When the wind blew, she said, there were sometimes near-whiteout conditions. 
She knows the roads well, however, because she grew up north of Newcastle and even rode that same bus route as a child. That experience came in handy, and rarely was the bus route called off — it ran most of the time, she said. In recent years, however, with stricter guidelines, the bus wouldn’t run when “no unnecessary travel advisories” were issued. 
“I think my years as a school bus driver made me a better driver, especially defensively,” Krell said.
But, despite some of the travel challenges, Krell loved her drive — the wildlife and scenery. 
“I enjoyed the drive to town every morning,” Krell said. “Especially enjoyed watching for elk herds.”
Krell also enjoyed all the places she got to visit because she drove the bus for various school trips. She drove the bus to Denver for a Broadway show and got to see that. Krell has driven on multiple occasions to sites like the Vore Buffalo Jump, the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota, and others. 
She also drove for sports trips and enjoyed watching the kids play, she said. Another thing she enjoyed was going to state and regional basketball tournaments with her sister, Marilyn Lunney, who is also a bus driver. Her sister would drive the girls, and Krell would drive the boys. 
One of Krell’s favorite parts of being a bus driver, however, was the relationship she got to have with the kids, she said. 
“They’re almost like your kids,” Krell said. “It’s really fun to see them get older.”
Krell added that the kids grow and change, and sometimes they looked markedly different in the fall after a whole summer away from school. 
“The bus driver is the first one they see once they leave their house in the morning, so you need to provide a positive experience for them because it most likely sets the stage for their day. I always had respect for my students, and they had a respect for me. We developed a good relationship right away,” Krell said, adding that mutual respect was key to healthy interaction. Establishing that respect right away set a precedent, and she rarely had issues with students on her bus. 
“We all know that she cared for every child that rode her bus,” said Troy Allen, transportation director at the school.
Tracie Cummings, one of Krell’s best friends, has known Krell for over 30 years, and she has transported Cummings’ children and grandchildren. 
Cummings first met Krell when Gary drove bus, and the Cummings and Krells soon became good friends. Cummings said she appreciated Krell as a bus driver too. 
“You just know they (kids) are going to be safe,” Cummings said, noting that Krell is a very careful and safe driver. Krell said that safety for the kids is the top priority. 
Karen Miller is another close friend of Krell, whom she met through the bus route in 2014 when Miller’s granddaughter, Ari, came to live with her when she was 13 years old. With Miller working in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and her husband working in Gillette, it was sometimes difficult to get Ari to and from the bus stop on time, especially in harsh weather conditions. 
“It was nice to have somebody who was always looking out for us,” Miller said, noting that Krell was always patient and waited if she needed to. She was also someone Ari could go to if she needed something. 
“She’s just really a sweetheart. Just the kind of bus driver you’d want your kid to have,” Miller said. 
Krell’s coworkers are going to miss her, they said. District transportation secretary Tomi Yeager, who has worked with Krell for 15 years, said that her time working with Krell “has been a total joy.” 
“My hope for Bev is for her to come and visit her bus barn family every once in a while. I know she won’t forget us,” Yeager said. 
Now that Krell is in this new stage of life, she hopes to spend some more time with her three kids, Ty, Tandi and Tara, and her six grandkids. She enjoys watching her grandchildren play sports, she said, and she’s excited to have more time to do that, as well as crafting, which she also enjoys. Krell also has an AirBnB tiny cabin rental on her property that she’s excited to keep up with.