Mrs. Kelley Kreiger is involved in many different things around Bellefonte Area High School, but it is her unending support for her students that makes her such a beloved figure in the community.  From the field to the baseball diamond to the stage, she supports her students in any way that she can.

She grew up not too far from here in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and went to high school at Conemaugh Valley High School about an hour and a half away from Bellefonte. When she graduated from high school the school was very small. 

“I graduated with 60 students. [Then] I went to Penn State Altoona and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English,” Mrs. Kreiger said.

Although, here at BAHS, Mrs. Allyson Durney believes Mrs. Kreiger would have been good at jobs other than teaching.

“Mrs. Kreiger is just a little gem. Something that people may not know is that she wanted to join the circus after high school. While I think she would have been a pretty cool performer, I’m glad that her parents encouraged her to go to college. Who knows if we would have ever met if not? I really don’t like the circus,” Mrs Durney said.

However, contrary to what Mrs. Durney may have liked to see -Mrs. Kreiger as a performer – she did decide to continue her education career and decided to become an educator.

    “After graduating, I moved to North Carolina and found a job teaching English at a high school. I quickly realized that I enjoyed teaching and went back to school for my teaching degree,” Mrs. Kreiger said.

When she returned to college to earn her teaching degree, she attended the University of North Carolina, and fast-forward, after returning to the state she ended up earning a Master’s Degree from California University of Pennsylvania.

Overall, this is Mrs. Kreiger’s sixteenth year teaching and her tenth at BAHS. In her other six years teaching she taught for five years in North Carolina and a year in Kentucky.

Mrs. Kreiger is blessed with two children who, with her husband, she loves to spend time with. Her oldest son plays baseball where she says they spend lots of time. She also really enjoys traveling and taking family vacations as much as they can in the summers.

Mrs. Kreiger is currently a class advisor for the current sophomore class, the Class of 2025. She was previously the advisor of the Class of 2021 and because of her love for traveling has taken students on some pretty amazing class trips, field trips, and college visits. This time, for the Class of 2025, she partnered with one of her closest friends, Mrs. Durney. 

“We’ve both been class advisors before but never together. It just seemed like a logical step. You have to work well with your co-advisor and I think we compliment each other pretty well,” Mrs. Durney said.

The pair has worked very well together, organizing different trips, as mentioned previously. 

“We’ve been lucky to work together on many projects together and travel with our students. I think I’ve enjoyed planning and visiting many cities across the continent together for senior trips.  Chicago and Toronto have been my favorites. It’s a little nerve wracking when you are responsible for someone else’s children somewhere else, but it helps to do it with friends that you can trust and depend on,” Mrs. Durney said.

Mrs. Durney and Mrs. Kreiger have been friends for years and love to poke fun at each other, although everything is in good fun.

“She’s responsible but doesn’t take herself too seriously – and we love her for it,” Durney said.