Once the school day is over and teachers go home, it’s not just grading papers and worrying about their next class. Teachers at Bellevue West have a variety of different interests that extend beyond education. 

Kelly McVey:

Waking up at 4:30 in the morning to work out isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but social studies teacher Kelly McVey’s favorite thing is to workout. McVey said that working out is a huge stress reliever. She participated in sports throughout high school, and once she was out of college she decided to run a marathon. In memory of her father, she ran the Marine Corps Marathon. 

 “So that was like, the first time I ran a marathon,” McVey said. “And then I was like, oh, that was fun, and very rewarding.” 

Since then she started to work out daily. She works out Monday through Saturday and said she often gets together with her friends and trains for marathons or half marathons, or goes with her husband and trades workouts with him. She said it’s more of a social time rather than a workout time, which makes it more fun. 

Brandon Crenshaw:

When the race is on the screen, Biology teacher Brandon Crenshaw will spend an entire day watching it if he can. Crenshaw Has been a big fan of cra racing since he was a boy; he and his father watched races like NASCAR and the Indy 500 and he’s just stuck with it. He and his friends have a NASCAR fantasy league and he loves going to races with his friends and son.

“It’s one thing to see it on TV, but it’s so much different [in real life], like the sound and the smell,” Crenshaw said “And you can see everything whereas TV obviously has to focus on one little thing.”

However it’s not just the racing that interests Crenshaw. He said that he also enjoys studying and trying to understand the engineering of the actual cars.

Chad Huesth:

After school hours, Business teacher Chad Huseth is a sports fanatic. Sports have been in Huseth’s life since he was young, and even coached for his sons’ basketball team.He said his dad got him into sports as they watched and played a lot when he was young.

“I played a lot of sports as a kid, I wasn’t great, but I played and it just kind of developed passion,” Huseth said. 

Huseth always buys season tickets to the Husker games and says he hasn’t missed a game since 1993. While he said he’s more so into football, he enjoys other sports as well, such as baseball along with basketball. He always watches football when he can, but he said with basketball and baseball it’s tricker as it sometimes lands in the middle of the week rather than the weekends. 

 Danielle Turner:

Spanish teacher Danielle Turner’s favorite activity is going out and trying new restaurants. She said that once she was making enough money it was easier to prioritize more enjoyment in her life. Turner said she always tries to balance her work and her social life, and often meets with people more than once a week.

“I’ve just always been a person that just really enjoys new experiences,” Turner said. “I think, for Omaha, it’s maybe a little harder to get new experiences. But I think that Omaha has pretty good food.”

Turner even started an instagram account in February 2022 where she posts pictures and then reviews foods that she’s tried. She said she likes having an opinion and taking pictures of her food, and with those two combined she created her instagram account @omaha.nummies.