Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 28/01) - They come from near and far, but more important, they're here now.

Twenty-nine new teachers, teaching assistants, librarians and other staff moved to Yellowknife this fall to fill the minds of city children.

Most replace teachers who have moved on. But at Yellowknife Catholic Schools, which hired 22 of the newcomers, just nine are replacements. The other 13 are on board thanks to the district's growth.

At Yellowknife No. 1, the public board, there is no growth, with all seven new arrivals replacing outgoing staff.

A handful are Northerners, including the husband-and-wife team of Steve and Lynn MacFadyen, who moved to the city from Inuvik.

Both teach at Ecole St. Joseph.

A few are from the East Coast, with a sprinkling from other places like Sask-atchewan and Manitoba.

For Sylvie Bernard, moving north "is like a dream."

After earning a business degree and spending a couple more years trying to get into law school, the New Bruns-wicker then heard about Northern opportunities from a fellow Maritimer who had just returned from Yellowknife.

"She sold me on the idea, and made it sound interesting," said Bernard this week, adding that she's already a bit homesick. "But it's worth it ... I love it so far."

Her job at St. Patrick high school is the only one she applied for.

Bernard's ultimate boss, the Catholic School Board's superintendent, said the new teachers prove that "we attract diversity."

"You see it in the new people here this evening and in the staff we already have," Kern von Hagen last week.

Most are young, but some are middle-aged, while one 53-year-old intern finishing her education degree has eight grandchildren. Only 20 per cent of the new crop are men.

Many have been paired with mentors, a Catholic board program in which established teachers are paired with new ones to help them adjust to the North.