Drama students at Palo Alto High School are celebrating today after the administration reversed its decision to reassign theater teacher Sarah Thermond to English classes. Thermond is now set to teach theater at both Palo Alto High School and Greene Middle School in the 2026-2027 school year.
An announcement by principal Brent Kline on ParentSquare — which follows emotional student and parent testimony at the March 17 school board meeting — stated that the goal of the new assignment is to strengthen the overall Paly Theatre program.
“We have developed a plan moving forward that … includes having Sarah Thermond teach theatre at both Paly and Greene Middle School,” the announcement stated. “The growth of our theatre program is determined by the level of engagement of our main feeder middle school, so we look forward to creating more opportunities for students to engage in theatre earlier.”
On March 12, Paly assigned Thermond to the English Department, and the decision reversed that. According to Thermond, she is happy about this reversal and looks forward to her additional teaching position at Greene.
“This was one of the outcomes that I was most hoping for, because I think it has the strongest potential to really address some of the enrollment number factors,” Thermond said. “I love middle school age students, so I’m excited to be able to focus on the subject that I really love and broaden my reach to another site in the district.”
Thermond said she thinks working with the Greene theater program will increase student enrollment — a central issue in the school’s original decision to remove her — in the Paly Theatre program.
“I do think that what our other schools in our district show us is that the continuity and connection of teachers between Fletcher to Gunn and JLS to Gunn, clearly do seem to have a positive influence,” Thermond said. “I’m excited to collaborate with the other middle school teachers in the district and learn how they like to do things, and really try to kind of sync us up with our other sister schools.”
According to Thermond, she felt a real willingness from everyone involved at the district, site, and community level to sit down and talk through all available options.
“The general conversation around this helped everyone realize that there are some other solutions we could be considering to address these numbers issues,” Thermond said. “It opened a door for us to consider some solutions that had not been discussed as much before.”
According to junior and theater student Thomas Pitman, inconsistent theater teaching at Greene is the reason for declining enrollment.
“Since the end of 2022, a single theater teacher has not stayed for more than a year,” Pitman said. “I believe this could cause students at Greene to believe that theater is not something they should pursue.”
According to Greene Middle School’s official Visual & Performing Arts page, Samantha Todd is the current drama teacher. Archived pages show that it was Mohamed Chakmakchi in 2021 and 2022, Chris Mahle in 2023, and Samantha Borthwick in 2024 before Todd in 2025.
Theater student and sophomore Marty Bermudez said she is happy that Thermond is returning to Paly’s theater program.
“I was very happy,” Bermudez said. “The second that I saw the email, I was able to message one of my friends, and we both celebrated it.”
Thermond said she is unclear about what will happen to the current Greene theater teacher.
According to Thermond, the original decision was a site-level decision to reassign her to the English department due to declining enrollment numbers, but that Paly may have been misinterpreting the data.
“When the school is looking at numbers, they are very focused on the [periods] one through seven during-the-school-day theater class,” Thermond said. “If you take into account the number of students involved in our extracurricular productions, on average, we have not varied by more than five to 10 students over the last five years.”
In a separate email, Thermond stated that there are currently 33 students enrolled in classes during the school day, 25 students in eighth period Stage Tech and 53 students who are not counted in official enrollment numbers as a part of extracurricular productions this year.
Numerous students spoke out at the March 17 board meeting in support of Thermond.
Theater student Katya Kuykendall said Thermond has served as a steadfast source of support after the thespian community lost two students to suicide.
“The past two years have been the hardest our community has faced, and Ms. Thermond is our safe adult on campus,” Kuykendall said. “When filling Panoramic surveys, we think of her support and how safe she has made us all feel. Ms. Thermond has provided us with consistent stability. She has anchored us at a time when we are navigating grief, uncertainty and fear.”
Kuykendall said that the declining enrollment does not necessarily mean that the program is struggling.
“If the concern is program value, let’s talk about program value,” Kuykendall said. “Yes, normal class numbers may be down, but after-school productions, which Ms. Thermond runs without additional compensation, are thriving. That work is invisible, but it’s very visible to students.”
Senior Omkar Perinkulam, who has participated in stage tech for four years, said that under Thermond, the Paly Theatre program has been a welcome space.
“It [the theater program] has given me a space where I can express myself and theater has been one of the only places where I feel like I haven’t had to be competitive,” Perinkulam said.
In a statement to the Voice, Nicole Pitman, Paly Theatre Booster president, stated The Paly Theatre Boosters fully support Thermond.
Thermond said she is touched by the widespread community and student support she received regarding her reassignment during the March 17 board meeting and beyond.
“You always really hope that you’re having a positive impact, not only in the students developing as artists, but also as people,” Thermond said. “It meant a lot to me that they were willing to take time out of very busy schedules to just raise the point and share how they feel and advocate for what they perceive as a really important community for them, and that’s an incredibly affirming thing to hear as an educator.”
