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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Greg Storey has been on the job as supervisor of schools for the Beaufort Delta for nearly two months now. When News/North spoke to him back in January he said his plans for the first little while in the position was to get a feel for the district.

"You need to get to know your schools, the students and staff and residents," said Storey.

Beaufort Delta supervisor of schools Greg Storey, left, shares an educational aid text book with Samuel Hearne secondary school principal Roman Mahnic. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

"You try to get a sense of what the strengths and weaknesses are within the system and where people want to go and what their plan is."

While he's taking a collective approach, some of the specific challenges in front of him are to improve school attendance and evaluating and mentoring second-year teachers. He'll also be working directly with principals.

"We have to be consistently improving in our schools because that's just the nature of education," he said.

"There are a lot of new teaching ideas. How do you bring those in?

"There's a lot of work to be done to make sure your systems are as good as they can be while making sure we're working in a safe environment."

Though he's from Northern Saskatchewan, his heart is north of 60. For years he taught and principaled in Nunavut. He met his wife there and the couple has had two children together. He was also principal in Hay River for seven-and-a-half years.

An avid outdoorsman who loves canoeing and family winter camping, the life-long educator said the North is in a category of its own.

"When you go out on the land and you're the only person out there, there's a great lifting of spirit, a feeling like you are very rich when you have those sorts of experiences. You look around and you see what you're doing and you realize there's not that many people who have the opportunity to do these things," he said.

As he gets settled in Inuvik, Storey is hoping to take an active role in the community, emphasizing the important role elders play in that process.

Not only has his profession allowed him to become more in tune with the communities in which he has lived, but he said he has also become a better parent by understanding the current issues at play in youth's lives.

Being an educator means living a life of privilege, he said.

"When you work with those issues with kids you're always reconnected with your own humanity," he said. "That makes you become a better person. I believe in teachers and some of them are the greatest people in the world. They have a great job, a hard job and they need all the support possible because they're doing the most important work that there is."

It's that attitude which makes Samuel Hearne secondary school principal Roman Mahnic think Storey is a perfect fit.

"I think his record speaks for itself, and he's extremely easy to work with," said Mahnic. "He's a very accomplished educator who brings a lot of wisdom to the job. I know he will make a real difference here."