DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION - Dan Summers - the new principal of Fort Resolution's Deninu School - didn't just come to the community for his new job.

Summers and his wife, Lucinda Summers, chose Fort Resolution over opportunities elsewhere.

Dan Summers: enjoying his first year as principal of Fort Resolution's Deninu School. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"We wanted to find a community with some character to it and some history to it," he said, noting the community is the oldest community in the NWT.

Summers said he and his wife, who is the school's literacy intervention teacher, also heard about Fort Resolution from a number of sources - a friend who visited in the 1980s, a relative of an in-law who had attended school there and even from friends in Dubai, where the couple previously worked.

Summers added he and his wife, who have two grown children, have a sense of adventure and wanted more to a community than just a school.

"So Fort Resolution became one of those 1,000 places you have to visit before you die," he said. "We want to make sure every day is a day to remember here."

There were other job opportunities elsewhere, but they were turned down to come to Fort Resolution, he said. "There are no regrets whatsoever."

Summers said it is difficult to compare Fort Resolution and Dubai - a cosmopolitan Middle Eastern city of 1.4 million people.

"They each have their splendours and fascinations about them," he said.

One major difference is the temperature, he noted. "The nice thing about having the cold is you can dress for it, but you can't dress for the heat."

Aside from Dubai, where the Summers lived for three years, they spent a dozen years working in several Middle Eastern countries.

The family has also travelled extensively, visiting about 50 countries in all.

"We had every intention of showing our children the world," Summers said.

The principal, who is originally from Ontario, said he plans to stay in Fort Resolution for as long as he is contributing to the school, the students and the community.

Right now, he has a three-year contract with the South Slave Divisional Education Council, he noted. "But it could be longer."

Summers, who has been a teacher/principal for about 19 years, said he enjoys the work, especially building relationships with parents.

As Deninu School principal, Summers follows in the footsteps of Moh Odeen, who was widely credited with making positive changes to the school.

Summers said it is a bonus to follow Odeen and the foundation he established along with the Fort Resolution District Education Authority and school staff.

"They've made a very strong foundation," he said. "It's now a matter of carrying on with that."

Summers has upgraded the school website and begun monthly assemblies to highlight student successes to parents. The principal is also launching initiatives to upgrade the trades shop, the kitchen and the soccer pitch. All three projects are expected to be completed by the fall.

Extracurricular activities - such as floor hockey, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and aerobics - are also being expanded.

Summers said the main challenge he faces at the school is attendance, which is also a problem at many other schools in the North. While attendance is good in the lower grades, it falls off among older students, he explained.

"That's not something you can change in a year."

Deninu School currently has 118 students between Kindergarten and Grade 12.

Summers said his goal is to make school exciting so all students will want to attend.