Palo Alto High School’s new assistant principal Mike Stieren is prioritizing establishing confidence and connecting with the community in his first year. 

Stieren, who is replacing previous assistant principal Michelle Steingart, said the most important goal for his first year is to gain trust within the Paly community.

“You establish trust through a couple of different ways: showing that I’m competent, being reliable and dependable, being available for people and putting people before myself,” Stieren said.

Paly history teacher Katya Villalobos said Stieren’s approach during the first staff meeting, where he introduced the new phone policy, left a strong impression.

“He made a joke about it — ‘Oh yeah, you give the new guy the hardest thing,’” Villalobos said. “He framed it [the new phone policy] in a positive way, not from an administrative standpoint but more around why it’s important, which I really appreciated.”

According to Stieren, who grew up and attended school in the Bay Area, he was impressed by Paly’s athletic and academic achievements and drawn to the district’s atmosphere.

“Even when I was in high school, whether it was playing sports against Paly or just knowing kids from the area, Paly has always had a really good reputation as a school,” Stieren said. “It’s really interesting to interact with the students and get a sense of what you guys are up against.”

Stieren said that in his new role he will largely be focused on taking on Steingart’s tasks.

“I’m taking over things like attendance, special education,” Stieren said. “I oversee the science department. I’ll oversee our website, the WASC process.”

But beyond administrative tasks, Stieren said he also wants to emphasize the importance of celebrating students’ accomplishments and passions beyond the classroom, whether that includes showing up to theater performances or football games.

“High school is really boring if all you do is go to class,” Stieren said. “It’s those other moments, like when you are late working with your friends and crafting a story, that really makes it like the full experience of going to high school.”

According to Stieren, in this exploration, he is also looking forward to trying new innovations in his role.

“These are all new things for me, which is cool, because I get to learn some new things, try to invent some new systems and figure out solutions to new problems,” Stieren said. 

Stieren said he hopes the community will reach out to him as a resource.

“As the new guy, I’ll blend in, but come say hi to me,” Stieren said. “Any way that I can help you get to the thing that you are working so hard for, I’m more than happy to bend over backwards to try to help you get there.”