Before TJ Bentley came to Napaskiak, administrative assistant Joe Bavilla had seen a lot of principals come and go.
“TJ was my 16th principal,” said Bavilla. “And Sandy, who's coming up, will be my 17th.”
Bavilla himself has been at Napaskiak’s school for nearly four decades. This new principal learned that he would face a lot of unexpected duties in the district.
“I remember walking up to Toksook [Bay] the first time that I noticed these yellow tanks in the back,” said Bentley. “And I'm like, ‘What are those? What are those, water?’ Because nobody had told me that I was in charge of, you know, 20 or 30 or 40,000 gallons of stove oil. We had to do that.”
Bentley remembers evening trips to Napaskiak’s airport when long-delayed flights would bring in food for the school cafeteria.
“It's our responsibility for that. Always has been,” said Bentley. “So if you don't, the ravens get to it pretty quickly.”
Bavilla said that Bentley began involving parents in the school soon after he arrived.
“The Halloween carnival, community Thanksgiving dinner, community Christmas dinner,” Bavilla said. “That was a start. That there was a great startup, him moving here.”
Teacher Stephanie Maxie remembers Bentley as her principal before he became a colleague. She was taught by his wife too, a teacher at the school. She said that to this day, she can’t help but call him Mister Bentley instead of TJ.
“I noticed students in Napaskiak trust him,” said Maxie. “And they run to him as soon as he came into the classroom.”
Something Bentley did a lot was get out of his office.
“I used to bring my computer into the classroom and just do work,” said Bentley. “And, you know, get a feel for how classrooms are running and stuff like that.”
Bentley plans ahead, and he expected his teachers to do the same.
“He really pushed for detailed lesson plans,” said Maxie. “And, um, to be honest, I struggled with that. But he's definitely helped me shape into the teacher I am today.”
Maxie said that she knew he made comments on her lesson plans because he knew she was capable. Maxie said that she enjoys lesson planning now, but it took time.
Bentley worked toward a student-centered learning model where kids work out their learning themselves. It was important to him to find what worked best for students in the district. The school has less than a 5% proficiency in math and English language arts, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
“I'm sure you've been in classes where the teacher just stands up there and just speaks,” said Bentley.
Instead, students learned vocabulary by turning to partners and practicing using the word, then writing it in sentences.
“It just shows how much he believes in the kids, and that they deserve a really good education. And they deserve the best from their teachers,” Maxie said.
He also was inspired by Bethel to rearrange the course material so that students start with electives to get used to the learning style, emerging better equipped to take on more challenging credits later.
“Usually our kids caught up somewhere around high school. That's when they started to get on level with the rest of the U.S.,” Bentley said.
But while he brought changes to learning styles, he also promoted traditional Native culture. The Napaskiak student population is almost entirely Yup’ik, and the school teaches a dual language curriculum using both Yup’ik and English. Bentley read the books on Yup’ik values, and the school day started with reciting yuyaraq, the Yup’ik way of life.
“It starts off: 'We the Yup'ik are raised according to the original direction of our forefathers,'” said Maxie. “As an adult, when you say those, and you hear the kids saying, reciting the yuyaruq, it's very empowering. And the kids, they're proud of who they are.”
People appreciated a principal who recognized the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the community and encouraged Yup’ik dancing, all of which impressed former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr when he visited Napaskiak. Bentley also made the school the most colorful in the district, hiring a mural artist over and over to cover the walls of their new building with scenes of fishing, moose hunting, dog mushing, and depictions of local Elders.
Bentley's favorite part of the job was coaching wrestling, where he really got to know and have fun with the students. The community remembers him for that too, for his goofy banter with the students and his singing in the hallway. Maxie remembers the sound of Elvis Presley songs echoing outside her classroom in the voice of Mister Bentley.
