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
Priya Tamura

Priya Tamura, News Editor, Webmaster

All content by Priya Tamura
The Palo Alto Unified School District board reviews new parcel tax renewal polling data at a school board meeting on Nov. 4. School Board member Allison Kamhi said she could foresee a shortened renewal timeline --- a period less than the current 7-year cycle --- if property and enrollment trends dramatically change. “What I was finding interesting about it [the parcel tax] was this idea of putting it back before voters, if indeed, we find ourselves in a situation with drastically increasing property taxes and drastically decreasing enrollment,” Kamhi said. “But I am not convinced that we need that, given the polling and given the clear consensus that this is the right thing to do.”

PAUSD considers renewal of $16.5 million parcel tax

Priya Tamura and Mayu Altekar-Okazaki
November 18, 2025
Palo Alto High School alumnus Tess Manjarrez speaks to the crowd last Tuesday at The Palo Alto Art Center during the Youth Mental Health & Allcove Community Meeting as Santa Clara County District supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga looks on from the front row. Manjarrez said Allcove plays a critical role in supporting students with mental health needs in the community. “I don’t think there was anyone at Paly or Gunn that was more than 2 degrees separated from someone who took their own life,” Manjarrez said. “It’s part of the culture. It twists you.”

County budget crisis threatens youth mental health center allcove

Joyce Ma and Priya Tamura
November 4, 2025
During today's fourth Spirit Week lunch rally in Palo Alto High School's Big Gym, the seniors and sophomores faced each other in Cup Game. According to senior Sunday Ahn, she was certain that seniors were going to win the game. "I had confidence in Max [the senior winner] to win the game," Ahn said. "It was fun to watch the very close up battle between them."

Seniors stay in lead during generations Spirit Week rally

Priya Tamura and Lise Concolato
October 16, 2025
Sophomore Kyvan Chen bikes over the Churchill Avenue crossing at the end of the school day Tuesday. Dan Lieberman, public information officer for Caltrain, said RailSentry was installed at the Churchill Avenue and Alma Street crossing earlier this year. “It is a LiDAR (light detection and ranging) and camera-based AI solution that can identify when people, cars or objects are acting out of the ordinary, allowing Caltrain to alert trains and dispatch the Transit Police,” Lieberman said.

Caltrain adds new safety measures

Juni Thurston and Priya Tamura
September 22, 2025
Sophia Camerl tests a VR headset in a reading nook. Her mom, Carolina Camerl, watches from out of frame. “We like to come here often. It [the Children’s Library] has a lot more books for their age,” Carolina Camerl said.

Historic Children’s Library celebrates reopening

Priya Tamura and Naomi Espinoza
September 19, 2025
Mike Stieren, a new assistant principal at Palo Alto High School, said he is feeling many different emotions joining the Paly staff this year. "It's equal parts nervousness and excitement because I get to learn about this place [Paly]," Stieren said. "The best way to learn is from you guys [students]."

New assistant principal aims to build trust

Motoko Iwata and Priya Tamura
September 5, 2025
Sophomore Dalia Saal shapes clay in her Advanced Ceramics class, which can be taken after Art Spectrum. Starting next school year, Advanced Ceramics will be replaced by 3D Art & Design II. According to Saal, the art pathways will be more straightforward after the split into 2D and 3D art lanes. “I think it will be more efficient to have students choose their pathway from the beginning,” Saal said.

[Photo] Opinion: Art Spectrum, it’s time for a change

Joyce Ma, Opinion Editor
May 14, 2025
Sophomore Reece Feng looks up at the Exploratorium poster. According to Associated Student Body treasurer Paul Wang, the venue will offer central gallery exhibits, a disc jockey light show and four photo booths. “Overall, it [prom] has been planned better, and it's going to be a way better experience in terms of quality for students.” (photo illustration)

Preview: Prom returns to the stars

Joyce Ma and Priya Tamura
May 6, 2025
Mrigendra Steiner, California School Employees Association Chapter 301 President, speaks in front of the Palo Alto Board of Education about the importance of investing in paraeducators and classified staff. Steiner said paraeducators play an essential, often overlooked role in classrooms and should be utilized more often. “When you see a partnership between a teacher and a paradigm where they look across the room and they already know, without even saying a word to each other, what needs to happen with a student as we support them in classrooms, is amazing,” Steiner said.

District rolls out special education initiatives at board meeting

Priya Tamura, News Editor, Webmaster
April 24, 2025
Celeste Nicole and Anay Joshi engage in genetics activities in biology class, building their foundational skills for future science courses. According to Chemistry Honors teacher Nicole Loomis, the planned merging of biology and biology honors next year may create challenges for teachers. “Because Bio is a class that everyone has to take to graduate, the range of student skills in the class is very wide,” Loomis said. “Breaking it into honors and regular lanes makes it much more feasible for teachers to gear their class toward the students either on the higher end or the lower end of those skills."

Opinion: Cautious optimism for biology lane merge

Priya Tamura and Joyce Ma
April 19, 2025
The final performer dances to “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor to close off the Stanford Winter Performing Arts Festival yesterday afternoon at the Stanford Roble Gymnasium. Tyler “EagleBabel” Brooks, the Stanford student management associate, said in an email to the Paly Voice that the Spring Arts Festival is the next event. “This [The Spring Arts Festival] is also open to the Stanford community, so any interested folks at Paly should mark their calendars,” Brooks said.

Stanford Winter Festival showcases performing arts

Ava Knapp and Priya Tamura
February 23, 2025
Community members wait to be let into Palo Alto Unified School District's board meeting tonight. According to JLS Principal Christopher Grierson, he hopes the meeting will be diplomatic. “I'm nervous about the board meeting,” Grierson said. “I want everyone to be respectful and I hope that our school board, district leaders and community members can continue to be respectful of everyone that we serve.”

Preview: School board braces for Ethnic Studies fall-out

Priya Tamura and Mayu Altekar-Okazaki
February 11, 2025
Technicolor brings new twist to Arts in Unusual Places

Technicolor brings new twist to Arts in Unusual Places

Priya Tamura and Nathan Jiang
February 6, 2025
Verbatim: Students react to Trump administration's two-gender policy

Verbatim: Students react to Trump administration’s two-gender policy

Priya Tamura and Joyce Ma
February 3, 2025
Palo Alto High School science teacher Elizabeth Brimhall speaks on the importance of a single-lane biology course during the board meeting on Tuesday. According to Brimhall, the change was proposed in an effort to increase student diversity within classes. "Our honors classes look very different than our college prep level classes,” Brimhall said. “As educators, that is a deep concern we all share. We want our classes at all levels to represent the diversity of our schools and our student bodies.”

District votes for single-lane freshman biology course

Kristine Lin and Priya Tamura
January 23, 2025
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