Kelseyville >> With 32 years of teaching experience at Kelseyville High School, Deborah Ingalls is no stranger to praise from grateful students. But it usually comes in the form of a heartfelt thank you and a hug. Ingalls never expected anything larger. So she was more than a little surprised when one of her long-time students, Karissa Huggins, took the time to nominate her for a Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction award.
“That means just the world to me,” Ingalls said. “You don’t really know how much you touch a student until something like this happens.”
Each year the National Society of High School Scholars invites student members to nominate their teachers for the honor. The award recognizes the tireless work of educators who inspire growth and development in their students, both in and out of the classroom.
And according to Kelseyville High School principal Matt Cockerton, who has known Ingalls for 26 years, there’s no one more deserving than the school’s advanced art and physical education teacher. “Her way with students is just outstanding. She’ll always find the positive in all her students,” he said. “Debbie always takes that extra mile with her students.”
Her dedication is quiet, something that others may not notice. When a struggling student was jumping from home to home, lacking any kind of a real support system, Ingalls took the girl under her wing. She gave her clothing, shoes, toiletries, anything she needed. Essentially, Ingalls put the student through high school. And she didn’t tell a single person about it. Cockerton only found out recently.
The student graduated last year, and she’s attending college now. “I don’t think she would be there right now if not for Debbie and her kindness,” Cockerton said.
As an art teacher, Ingalls rebels against the idea that not everyone can be an artist. She believes just the opposite: art is inside each and every person. It’s a philosophy she instills in her students. By the their third assignment, she tells them, they will be creating work they’re proud of.
She believes this attitude might just be why her student felt compelled to nominate her. During Huggins’ first art class her freshman year at Kelseyville High School, Ingalls informed the entire class that they were all capable of drawing more than stick figures. And she was right. By Christmas, Huggins was asking for personal art supplies. It wasn’t long before she was creating work to give away to her family.
Ingalls is similar in that way — she prefers to gift her work to others, rather than keep it for herself. “We must have had some kind of connection,” she said.
The Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction award was a long time coming. “I’m just overjoyed that finally she got recognition,” Cockerton said. “She does so much, she doesn’t ask for anything in return. She’s been acknowledged and I think she wholeheartedly deserves this.”
For over three decades, it’s the students who have kept Ingalls going and her spirits high. Even if she’s having a rough day, her pupils never fail to put a smile on her face and make her proud.
This love of teaching runs in the blood. Ingalls’s parents were both teachers for the Lakeport Unified School District, and becoming an educator was a natural course of direction for Ingalls. The only thing she didn’t expect was her employer — Ingalls herself, a Lakeport resident since the age of one, graduated from Kelseyville High School’s rival school, Clear Lake High School.
“You know you always dream of going back to your old school but I absolutely love where I am,” she said. “They say things always work out for a reason, that’s how I live my life. I’m glad it worked out the way it did.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
