Homer High School teacher Winter Marshall-Allen has been named the recipient of the Inclusive Practices Award in the individual category for the 2024-2025 school year. She’s been an educator for 18 years, 10 of which she has spent working in Alaska, both on and off the road system.

“I’ve worked with students with specific learning disabilities to students who were already identified in the school-to-prison pipeline while working in the juvenile system,” said Marshall-Allen. “Now I’ve been in Alaska for 10 years and I’ve seen a variation of educational implementation. I’ve seen what restorative justice practices look like. I’ve seen what zero-tolerance harm can be. I’ve seen what trauma response can be in a positive way, and I have also seen it weaponized by school resource officers. “

Marshall-Allen credits all of these experiences for shaping her perspectives and helping push her to become a special education teacher and engaged, active community member.

“Being a special education teacher here in Homer has been about teaching our community about the variation of student population that we have and the manner in which they present themselves,” she said.

Over the years, Marshall-Allen has collaborated with local businesses and organizations within the community to help place students with work opportunities. Marshall-Allen points out that this experience can help her students have a better quality of life and meet more approximations of self-sufficiency, even if it’s just part-time work.

“How do I match up my student’s talents to their needs and then find ways for kids to be able to plug in, even if it’s part-time or partial work? That’s what’s needed to provide more access so that our students can have a better quality of life and meet more approximations of self-sufficiency.”

The honor is awarded through the Alaska Governor’s Council on Disabilities & Special Education, partnered with the Alaska State Special Education Conference, and is based on statewide nominations made annually in December. Marshall-Allen will be attending and presenting at the conference this weekend, Feb. 3-5. The subject of her presentation is disability justice, and she expressed hopes that attendees (other statewide special education educators) can leave with practicable skills that they can utilize in their personal and professional lives.

With school funding in crisis statewide and high uncertainty among education administrators and practitioners, statewide, Marshall-Allen also noted how she has noticed funding changes that directly affected her.

“Typically, our district is able to fund and support a good chunk of our special education staff being able to go,” she said, speaking of the education conference. “But budget crunches continue to level away at what we’re able to do. This year the district was only able to sponsor the day of me receiving the award, but the other two days I’m there — out of the three, total — that expense I’m taking on my own because I believe in my professional development.”

Marshall-Allen is also an active union advocate and local leader with the Kenai Peninsula Education Association. She was formerly recognized as the National Education Association’s Social Justice Activist of the Year in 2019. You can follow her advocacy work online by following her page “Winter NEA Member and Advocate,” on Facebook.

Reach Chloe Pleznac at chloe.pleznac@homernews.com or by calling 907-615-3193.