Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Operated by the

Palo Alto Unified School District The Palo Alto Unified School District is a public school district located near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. It consists of twelve primary schools, three middle schools, two high schools, and an adult school. History The distri ...

, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other being crosstown Gunn High School, for which the school has a rivalry with. Palo Alto High School was originally established as a private school in 1894. The school was later established as a public school four years later, and a new campus was built in 1918. The school's property is adjacent to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, who provided the land for the school. The school admits roughly 500 students each year and features various extracurriculars, including a variety of student-led publications, glassblowing, robotics, and a theater program. It is a two-time

National Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures ...

History

Palo Alto Senior High School initially opened in 1894 as a private school. At the time of its opening, the school consisted of 24 students to 3 teachers. The school would later become a public school in 1918. Classes were initially held in the Channing Avenue Grammar School; a three-room high school was later built using funds from a trustee. An expanded campus began construction in 1917 and finished construction by December 1918.

Demographics

2021-22 * 2,010 students: 1,090 Male (54.2%), 1,051 (45.8%) 2015–16 * 1,994 students: 982 Male (49.6%), 1004 Female (50.4%)

Standardized testing

Student media

In October 2014, a new Media Arts Center (MAC) was unveiled at Paly. The MAC is the hub of journalism at Palo Alto High School.

Year-round student publications

These publications have a dedicated class associated with them. *''The Campanile'' is the high school's newspaper. It prints 24 broadsheet pages once every three weeks. ''The Campanile'' has been in the National Scholastic Press Association Hall of Fame since 2004, and has also won four

Pacemaker An artificial cardiac pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the natural cardiac pacemaker) or pacemaker is a medical device that generates electrical impulses delivered by electrodes to the chambers of the heart ei ...

awards as well as a West regional award for editorial excellence from ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

''. *''C Magazine'' is the high school Arts and Culture Magazine. ''C Magazine'' has won a Gold Crown award from Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2015 and 2016. *''Verde'' is Paly's school magazine publication, founded in 1999. It is published five times each year and available online. ''Verde'' has won Pacemaker and Gold Crown awards for scholastic journalism, including the 2005 Gold Crown award in the Newspaper category. In 2006 Verde won the Best in Show at National Journalism Convention held in San Francisco. In 2008 Verde was one of four newsmagazines awarded the Pacemaker award from the National Scholastic Press Association. *''Viking'' is Paly's sports magazine publication, published five times each year and available online. Founded in 2007, ''Viking'' was the first publication at the high school level to solely cover athletics in the country. It won the National Scholastic Press Association's Student Journalist Impact Award in 2008. *''The Paly Voice'', launched in 2003, is Paly's online news source. It features searchable archives of all other Paly publications as well as exclusive online content. In the spring of 2005, the site won both the People's Voice and Overall

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

in the "Student" category. *''InFocus'' is Paly's broadcast TV news program. Founded in 1998, it airs daily during school. *''Madrono,'' the Palo Alto High School yearbook founded around 1918, has won numerous awards; one of the most prestigious being a Gold Medalist for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. It will publish its 103rd issue in 2022.

Additional student publications

These publications are clubs but do not have a dedicated class. *''Proof'' is Paly's arts and entertainment magazine. It was first published second semester of the 2009–10 school year. *''Agora'' is Paly's foreign affairs magazine. First published in 2012, it is the first high school foreign affairs publication in the country. It publishes once a semester. *''Littera'' is Paly's club literary magazine. The club was created in the fall of 2018. It publishes an online issue every semester.

Athletics

Titles won by teams from Palo Alto High School range from CIF State Championships in Boys Varsity Basketball in 1993 and 2006, a football Division I state championship in 2010, volleyball Division I state championships in 2010 and 2011, to CCS Championships in Football in 1995, 2006, 2007, 2010, and 2022 and countless CCS titles in other sports. In 2010, both the Boys and Girls Lacrosse teams won the inaugural Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Championships. Paly has 25 varsity teams, including

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

, as well as

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open cou ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with th ...

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

, and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat s ...

teams. The school is also home to several athletic clubs, including an Ultimate Frisbee Club.

Notable alumni

Palo Alto High School has had various well-known alumni, including: *

Davante Adams Davante Lavell Adams (born December 24, 1992) is an American football wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Fresno State, and was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the se ...

(2011), NFL wide receiver * Rink Babka (1954), Olympic discus thrower *

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

(1958), folk singer *

Lisa Brennan-Jobs Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs ( Brennan; born May 17, 1978) is an American writer. She is the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan. Jobs initially denied paternity for several years, which led to a legal case and various medi ...

(1996), writer and daughter of

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...

. * Charles Brenner (1961), APL implementer and forensic mathematician * Ron "Money-B" Brooks (1987), rapper (

Digital Underground Digital Underground was an American alternative hip hop group from Oakland, California. Their personnel changed and rotated with each album and tour. Digital Underground's leader and mainstay was Gregory " Shock G" Jacobs (also known as Humpty H ...

) *

Ron Christie Ronald Irvin Christie (born August 7, 1969) is an American government relations expert and Republican political strategist, who has also worked as a member of former Vice President Dick Cheney's staff. He is the author of two books, and an occ ...

, Republican political strategist. *

Birge Clark Birge Malcolm Clark (April 16, 1893 – April 30, 1989) was an American architect, called “Palo Alto's best-loved architect” by the Palo Alto Weekly; he worked largely in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Biography Early life Clark was bo ...

(1910), architect * Whitfield Crane (1986), rock singer ( Ugly Kid Joe) *

Aarón Díaz Aarón Díaz Spencer (born March 7, 1982) is a Mexican-American actor, singer, and model. Early life Aarón Díaz Spencer was born in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico to an Irish-American mother (surname Spencer) and a Mexican father (surnam ...

(2001), Mexican-American actor and model ('' Quantico'') * Tim Dickinson (1992), political journalist (''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'', '' Mother Jones'') * Margot Early (1982), romance author * Dave Feldman (1983), sportscaster (

CSN Bay Area NBC Sports Bay Area (sometimes abbreviated as NBCS Bay Area) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and the San Francisco Giants, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquart ...

) *

Karen Joy Fowler Karen Joy Fowler is an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. Her work often centers on the nineteenth century, the lives of women, and alienation. She is best known as the author of the best-selling novel ''The Ja ...

(1968), author ('' The Jane Austen Book Club'') * Dave Franco (2003), actor ('' Scrubs'', ''

21 Jump Street ''21 Jump Street'' is an American police procedural television series that aired on the Fox network and in first run syndication from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focuses on a squad of youthful-loo ...

'', '' Now You See Me'') *

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-M ...

(1996), actor (''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Si ...

'' trilogy, '' Pineapple Express'', ''

Milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulat ...

'', ''

127 Hours ''127 Hours'' is a 2010 biographical psychological survival drama film co-written, produced and directed by Danny Boyle. The film stars James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn and Clémence Poésy. In the film, canyoneer Aron Ralston mus ...

'') * Tom Franco (1998), artist *

Erle Stanley Gardner Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of nonfiction b ...

(1909), detective fiction author & creator of

Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...

Ariel Gore Ariel Gore (born June 25, 1970) is a journalist, memoirist, novelist, nonfiction author, and teacher. Gore has authored more than ten books. Gore's fiction and nonfiction work also explores creativity, spirituality, queer culture, and positive psy ...

, writer, she attended for two years and has written about the experience. *

Charles Haid Charles Maurice Haid III (born June 2, 1943) is an American actor and television director, with notable work in both movies and television. He is best known for his portrayal of Officer Andy Renko in '' Hill Street Blues''. Haid was born in Sa ...

(1961), actor and director, (played Andy Renko on TV series ''

Hill Street Blues ''Hill Street Blues'' is an American serial police procedural television series that aired on NBC in prime-time from January 15, 1981, to May 12, 1987, for 146 episodes. The show chronicles the lives of the staff of a single police station loca ...

'') *

Jim Harbaugh James Joseph Harbaugh (; born December 23, 1963) is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current and 20th head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines. He played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986. He play ...

(1982), football player and coach, current head coach at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

* Peter Hansen (1997), football coach *

Douglas Hofstadter Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American scholar of cognitive science, physics, and comparative literature whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, a ...

(1961), professor of cognitive science and author * Allan Hoover (1925), financier, son of President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gre ...

* Jon Huntsman, Sr. (1955), billionaire founder of

Huntsman Corporation Huntsman Corporation is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of chemical products for consumers and industrial customers. Huntsman manufactures assorted polyurethanes, performance products, and adhesives for customers like BMW, ...

KeeSean Johnson KeeSean Johnson (born October 9, 1996) is an American football wide receiver who is a free agent. He played college football at Fresno State and is the program's all-time leader in receiving yards and receptions. Johnson was drafted by the Ari ...

(2014), football player *

Ollie Johnston Oliver Martin Johnston Jr. (October 31, 1912 – April 14, 2008) was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last surviving at the time of his death from natural causes. He was recognized by The Wal ...

(1930), Academy Award-winning Disney animator (''

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as ...

'', ''

Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcor ...

'') * Morris Kirksey (1913), gold medal-winning sprinter and rugby player at the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...

Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...

(1965), drummer (

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...

)Palo Alto History Project, "The Grateful Dead: Making the Scene in Palo Alto"
* Bill Lane, Sunset magazine publisher, American diplomat, and philanthropist *

Cory Lerios Cory Charles Lerios (born February 12, 1951) is an American pianist and vocalist. He is a founding member of the platinum-record-selling soft rock band Pablo Cruise, and since the mid-1980s he has scored music for film and television. History L ...

, founding member of the band

Pablo Cruise Pablo is a Spanish form of the name Paul. People *Pablo Alborán, Spanish singer *Pablo Aimar, Argentine footballer * Pablo Armero, Colombian footballer * Pablo Bartholomew, Indian photojournalist *Pablo Brandán, Argentine footballer * Pablo Bren ...

Jeremy Lin Jeremy Shu-How Lin (born August 23, 1988) is a Taiwanese-American professional basketball player who last played for the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the N ...

(2006), basketball player *

Jim Loscutoff James Loscutoff Jr. (February 4, 1930 – December 1, 2015) was a professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A forward, Loscutoff played on seven Celtics championship teams between 1956 an ...

(1948), basketball player, won seven NBA championships with the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

John Markoff John Gregory Markoff (born October 24, 1949) is a journalist best known for his work covering technology at '' The New York Times'' for 28 years until his retirement in 2016, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and captur ...

(1967), ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' journalist and author *

Ron "Pigpen" McKernan Ronald Charles McKernan (September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973), known as Pigpen, was an American musician. He was a founding member of the San Francisco band the Grateful Dead and played in the group from 1965 to 1972. McKernan grew up he ...

(1963), musician (

) (didn't graduate) *

Rob Minkoff Robert Ralph Minkoff (born August 11, 1962) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for co-directing ''The Lion King'' (along with Roger Allers), and live-action films including ''Stuart Little'' (1999), ''Stuart Little 2'' (2002), ''The Haun ...

(1980), film director and animator (''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...

'', ''

Stuart Little ''Stuart Little'' is a 1945 American children's novel by E. B. White. It was White's first children's book, and it is now widely recognized as a classic in children's literature. ''Stuart Little'' was illustrated by the subsequently award-winnin ...

'') * Sean Nolan (1990), Olympic water polo team, Sydney 2000 * Jesse Moss (1988), documentary filmmaker *

Hank Norberg Henry Francis Norberg Jr. (December 22, 1920 – December 4, 1974) was an American football end who played two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers of the All-America Football Conference. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 18th round of ...

, football player *

Teresa Noyola Teresa Noyola Bayardo (born 15 April 1990) is a Mexican former footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder. She previously played for the Houston Dash, FC Kansas City, and Seattle Reign FC in the National Women's Soccer League, and for Icel ...

(2008), soccer player * Téa Obreht (2002), novelist ( The Tiger's Wife) * Luke Paquin (1996), guitarist ( Hot Hot Heat) *

Joc Pederson Joc Russell Pederson ( ; born April 21, 1992) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, and Atlanta Br ...

(2010), Major League Baseball player (

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in ...

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...

) *

Stu Pederson Stuart Russell Pederson (born January 28, 1960) is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball. He is the father of outfielder Joc Pederson. Baseball career College Pederso ...

(1978), Major League Baseball player (

) * Bill Pidto (1983), sportscaster (

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

MSG Network The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by MSG Entertainment, Inc.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable prov ...

) * Keith Raffel (1968), technology executive, novelist, US Senate aide *

Tom Ritchey Tom Ritchey (born 1956) is an American bicycle frame builder, Category 1 racer, fabricator, designer, and founder of Ritchey Design. Ritchey is a US pioneer in modern frame building and the first production mountain bike builder/manufacturer i ...

(1974), ( Ritchey Design), cycling engineer and pioneer of the mountain bike * Dave Schultz (1977), 3x NCAA Champion, Olympic and world champion wrestler * Mark Schultz (1978), 3x NCAA Champion, Olympic and world champion wrestler *

Joe Sebok Joe Sebok (born March 25, 1977) is a professional poker player from San Francisco, California. His stepfather, Barry Greenstein, is also a professional poker player. He is known as "The Cub" because he calls Greenstein "Bear." Beginning profes ...

(1995), professional poker player *

Joe Simitian Saren Joseph Simitian (born February 1, 1953) is a California Democratic politician. From 2004 to 2012, he was the State Senator representing California's 11th State Senate district, which encompasses all or part of 13 cities in San Mateo, Sa ...

(1970),

California State Senator The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. D ...

(2004–12) and former

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The ...

man (2000–04) *

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

(1958), rock singer (

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ach ...

) (attended 1–2 years, but graduated from

Castilleja ''Castilleja'', commonly known as paintbrush, Indian paintbrush, or prairie-fire, is a genus of about 200 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska south to the Andes, northern Asia, and on ...

) * Tom Stern (1964), Oscar-nominated cinematographer (''

Million Dollar Baby ''Million Dollar Baby'' is a 2004 American sports drama film directed, co-produced, scored by and starring Clint Eastwood from a screenplay written by Paul Haggis, based on stories from the 2000 collection ''Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner' ...

'', ''

Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts, in the United States. In Massachusett, means "large estuary," alluding to ...

'', ''

Changeling A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found in folklore throughout Europe. A changeling was believed to be a fairy that had been left in place of a human (typically a child) stolen by other fairi ...

'') *

Dink Templeton Robert Lyman "Dink" Templeton (May 27, 1897 – August 7, 1962) was an American track and field athlete, Olympic gold medalist in rugby union, college football player, and track coach. Personal Templeton was born in Helena, Montana, and atte ...

(1915), multi-sport athlete, 1920 Olympic gold medalist and Hall of Fame

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. S ...

track & field coach *

Christopher Tin Christopher Chiyan Tin (born May 21, 1976) is an American composer of art music, often composed for film and video game soundtracks. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence. He has won two Grammy Aw ...

(1994),

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

winning composer *

Lew Welch Lewis Barrett Welch Jr. (August 16, 1926 – May 1971?) was an American poet associated with the Beat generation literary movement. Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s. He taught a poetry workshop as part of the University of C ...

, Beat poet, educator, and writer *

Tad Williams Robert Paul "Tad" Williams (born March 14, 1957) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer. He is the author of the multivolume ''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'' series, ''Otherland'' series, and '' Shadowmarch'' series as well as the stan ...

(1975), author (''

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn ''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'' is a trilogy of epic fantasy novels by American writer Tad Williams, comprising '' The Dragonbone Chair'' (1988), '' Stone of Farewell'' (1990), and '' To Green Angel Tower'' (1993). ''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'' ta ...

'', ''

Otherland ''Otherland'' is a science fiction tetralogy by American writer Tad Williams, published between 1996 and 2001. The story is set on Earth near the end of the 21st century, probably between 2082 and 2089, in a world where technology has advanced ...

'', and '' Shadowmarch'' science fiction/fantasy series) *

Kirk Wise Kirk Wise (born August 24, 1963) is an American film director, animator and screenwriter best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Wise has directed Disney animated films such as ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''The Hunchback of Notre ...

(1981), film director/animator (''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...

'', ''

Atlantis: The Lost Empire ''Atlantis: The Lost Empire'' is a 2001 American animated science fiction film, science fiction action film, action-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. ...

'') *

Remi Wolf Remi Francis Wolf (born February 2, 1996) is an American singer and songwriter from California. As a senior at Palo Alto High School, she appeared as a contestant on ''American Idol'' in 2014. After completing her studies at USC Thornton School ...

(2014), Pop/funk singer-songwriter *

Ron Wyden Ronald Lee Wyden (; born May 3, 1949) is an American politician and retired educator serving as the senior United States senator from Oregon, a seat he has held since 1996. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States Hou ...

(1967),

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...

from

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

(1996– ) *

Lily Zhang Lily Ann Zhang (born June 16, 1996) is an American table tennis player who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with teammates Ariel Hsing and Erica Wu. She also competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio with teammates Jiaqi Zheng ...

(2014), U.S. Olympic

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player, London 2012 * Jan Zobel (1965), accountant and LGBTQ community organizer in Bay Area

References

External links

Palo Alto High School official website
{{Authority control Palo Alto Unified School District Educational institutions established in 1898 High schools in Santa Clara County, California Public high schools in California Buildings and structures in Palo Alto, California 1898 establishments in California

History

Demographics

Standardized testing

Student media

Year-round student publications

Additional student publications

Athletics

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links