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The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

Palo Alto High School students walk to their next class by moving around the portables by the Palo Alto High School quad. According to Jerry Berkson, assistant principal, he is already coming up with solutions for where services currently available in the portables will move to.  “I know there’s an open classroom in the 400s off the bat.” Berkson said. “We’ll probably have to go back to teachers sharing rooms in certain places.”
District to remove campus portables over summer
Ava Knapp, Editor-In-Chief • December 17, 2025

Palo Alto High School will remove the portables near the quad over summer and replace them with landscaping. According to Assistant Principal...

Palo Alto High School teacher Daniel Nguyen speaks on Friday in front of his AP Statistics class. Nguyen said the new Multivariable Calculus course he is proposing is facing significant administrative pushback. “There has been a lot of pressure [from administrators] to basically stop the course [MVC] from being approved by the board and offered,” Nguyen said.
Preview: Board to vote on adoption of new math courses
Priya Tamura and Mayu Altekar-Okazaki December 15, 2025

Just one week after the Palo Alto High School administration committed not to offer a new college-level math class as a standard high school...

People load food into their cars in front of the Ecumenical Hunger Program center Wednesday afternoon. According to LaKesha Roberts, EHP associate director, the donations from Palo Alto High School were incredibly helpful this year." Right now, with the way things have been and the donations being as low as they have, being able to get to that influx of food donations right before the holidays is a huge help," Roberts said.
Holiday food donations address higher demand
Ava Knapp and Joy Tan December 11, 2025

As food banks across the Bay Area report rising demand this winter, local organizations are expanding efforts to keep families fed. At Palo Alto...

Seniors Connor Lee (Left), Nathan Chen (Middle), and Oliver Payne (Right) study together in the library. According to Payne the library is a space to study and have fun. "I really love the library," Payne said." It gives me a lot of space to connect with my friends study for tests and also relax and play video games."
ASB, Library continues ‘Snack & Study’
Joy Tan, Managing Editor, Director of Visual Operations & Business • December 10, 2025

This week, the Palo Alto High School library is staying open late and serving a new brand of free pizza as part of “Snack and Study Week,”...

Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline speaks to The Paly Voice on Tuesday afternoon about his decision to offer Multivariable Calculus at Paly as a Foothill College class next year. According to Kline, MVC should be taught by a college professor. “It's a college-level course,” Kline said. “I think it should be taught by a college professor who has that experience, who understands the expectations of this course.”
Principal committed to multivariable college course on campus
Mayu Altekar-Okazaki and Priya Tamura December 9, 2025

Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline plans to offer Multivariable Calculus as a Foothill College class — and not a district course —...

Cinematographer Bella Graves and producer Adam Dietrich speak to Incubator and The Paly Voice students about their "Rabbit Hole" documentary yesterday in the Media Arts Center. According to Dietrich, the years-long production process of documentary filmmaking requires sustained commitment from creators who must dedicate themselves deeply to a single story over time. "For a documentary, because it’s different from a written piece for a newspaper, you have to live with your story for years," Dietrich said. "Really good documentaries can take decades to make. You have to be ‘obsessed’ with your topic.”
Preview: ‘Rabbit Hole’ brings global fight for free information to the MAC
Navya Narayanan, News Editor, Webmaster • December 5, 2025

The still-incomplete documentary “Rabbit Hole,” which examines Wikipedia’s growing censorship and political pressure, will be presented...

Junior class president Kai Bunger-Tang holds the Jin ramen for the social today. Bunger-Tang said cold weather was one of the reasons they decided to have the ramen social. "We decided to host the ramen social this semester since it's a nice food to enjoy in cold weather," Bunger-Tang said.
Preview: Juniors prepare for ramen social
Mayu Altekar-Okazaki and Julia Nunes December 5, 2025

The Palo Alto High School junior class council will host a ramen social with arts and crafts today after school in the student center, aiming...

Shoppers rush toward the exits at Westfield Valley Fair on Black Friday after police responded to a shooting that wounded three people and sent the mall into lockdown and evacuation. According to sophomore Maya Rajgopal,  the experience changed how safe she feels in public spaces. “That one day made me realize anything can happen at any time to make you feel unsafe,” she said.
Students rethink safety after Valley Fair shooting
Julia Nunes, Reporter • December 3, 2025

Shoppers rushed toward the exits at Westfield Valley Fair on Black Friday after police responded to reports of a shooting inside the mall, prompting...

Tone
Freshman Akina Ogawa prepares to hit a forehand at the Palo Alto High School tennis courts. According to Ogawa, playing on the Paly tennis team gave her a whole new perspective. “Tennis is an individual sport, and I've never played on a team either, but the atmosphere is just really different,” Ogawa said. “It's really fun to cheer on my other teammates and also see that my teammates are rooting for me.”
Freshman phenom sets new standard for girls tennis
Alex Chang and Andrew Zhao December 15, 2025
Viking senior Finnegan Schoebel shoots through two defenders in a draw against the Pioneer Mustangs Friday night at home. According to Lodino, the team will improve as they build camaraderie and chemistry with one another. 

“We had a long talk after the game about how well they [the players] know each other, and what they know about each other,” Lodino said. “It's a new group. Now that our next game isn’t until Jan. 3 we can use the break to build trust and feel more comfortable.”
Boys’ soccer ties Mustangs in preseason match
Kevin O'Brien and Mack Reller December 15, 2025
Viking junior Katie McCue looks to inbound the ball during the second quarter, and her teammates wait for her signal to break out. “I think that talking is the biggest thing to improve on,” McCue said. “Especially in this game, they kept cutting in front of us and doing backdoor cuts, and we weren't, communicating with each other through screens or when there were cutters going around the baseline.”
Vikings’ late rally falls short against Knights
Henry Germain and Richard Zhang December 13, 2025
From the left, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster) and Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) in "Zootopia 2."
“Zootopia 2”: More fun and chaos in the animal world
Andrew Zhao, Kevin O'Brien, and Julia Curtis December 8, 2025

From betrayal to troubled relationships, "Zootopia 2"crams it all into another joke-filled, fast-paced thrill ride. As the sequel to Disney's...

Verbatim: Students respond to Musk’s proposal for Tesla Diner in Palo Alto
Verbatim: Students respond to Musk’s proposal for Tesla Diner in Palo Alto
Amily Zhang and Alexander Lawson November 17, 2025

A new Tesla Diner location could be coming to Palo Alto, according to a recent post on X from Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO. Musk wrote on Oct. 31...

The next batch of Jasmine Green Tea Cakes is ready at Topi Cakes, a new dessert shop centered around East Asian-inspired flavors in Palo Alto. Co-owner Tiffany Xing said she aims to expand the shop in the future and also have hopes of opening more stores across the Bay Area. “We definitely want to host some events and catering to attract more customers,” Xing said. “In the future, if we can really make this business model successful and make all the procedures clear and easy to copy, we may open other stores in the bay area or even other cities.”
Review: Topi Cakes brings culture in every crumb
Veronica Qiu and Amily Zhang December 12, 2025

From taro mochi cake boxes to pistachio cream cheese scones to customized cake designs, Topi Cakes' soft launch in October brings a selection...

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) quarrel after Glinda gives Nessa's ruby slippers to Dorothy, sparking Elphaba's furious reaction in "Wicked: For Good."
Does ‘Wicked: For Good’ change audiences for the better?
Cailey Quita and Julia Curtis December 2, 2025

After a year of anticipation following the cliffhanger ending of the first "Wicked" film, "Wicked: For Good" finally premiered in theaters over...

Palo Alto High School's color-coordinated a capella group, The Heartbeats, performs a rendition of a  medley from the iconic movie series, Pitch Perfect. They, with three other Paly groups, worked with the movie's arranger — Deke Sharon, on Thursday. Heartbeats senior Simone Batra thought the experience helped her grow musically. "When we worked with Deke, he taught us how to blend so many different aspects of music into one," Batra said.
Pitch Perfect at Paly: Deke Sharon a cappella masterclass
Julia Curtis, Reporter • October 13, 2025

Stage lights blinding, microphone in hand, anxiously trying to remember the choreography, we sang each chord as precisely as possible to impress...

Customers are served hot pot in Tasty Pot's modern, spacious interior. According to Manager Suang, the efficiency in their kitchen makes it good choice for people who come in and have a limited time to eat. “Some people are at school, or at work, and they come over during lunchtime; they only have a limited time, and we can make it very fast for them," Suang said.
Review: Tasty Pot spices up the block
Naomi Espinoza and Lise Concolato September 22, 2025

Featuring steaming soup, spicy kimchi and fried tempura, Tasty Pot, a new Taiwanese restaurant, brings specialty hot pot to downtown Palo Alto,...