Taking on the principal’s position at Rock Creek Elementary School is like coming home for Fritz Grere.

Grere, who takes over at Rock Creek for the recently retired Michele Willson, started his teaching career in the Tahoma School District 15 years ago.

“I actually had been a teacher at Rock Creek starting in 1993 and taught here for about eight years, then became a dean of students at Glacier Park for two years,” Grere said. “The last six years I’ve been a principal at Elk Ridge Elementary School in the White River School District.”

He decided early on that he wanted to go into education. Grere and his wife, Julie, decided to study education together at Northwest University in Kirkland, and later did their post-graduate work at City University.

“I wanted to have a career where I was making a difference,” he said. “I just enjoy learning new things and watching others learn. Education is an opportunity to do all that.”

When Grere first worked at Rock Creek in the ‘90s, he started out teaching first grade, then taught fourth and fifth grade, including split classes.

He left the Tahoma district six years ago to work in the White River district, which serves Buckley, in part because it was closer to his family’s home in Enumclaw.

“I was interested in being the leader and having my own building,” he said. “I had a wonderful staff that was very supportive and really wanted to move and help kids learn better than they had in the past.”