New vice principal Victoria Kim hopes to make a brighter future for students at Palo Alto High School.

“One of my big goals as an educator is to provide educational opportunities for all students,” Kim said.  However, she feels that she is not yet familiar enough with Paly to know what changes she hopes to make.

“I don’t know if there are any changes I want to make immediately,” Kim said.  “I think my first job is to get to know Paly and to learn about existing programs, learn about the culture here, learn about the process of doing certain things and then go from there.  I have ideas and ambitions as an educator, but with Paly specifically I’d have to learn more about Paly in order to see what I want to do going forward.”

Kim said that making an impact at Paly will be very difficult.

“Change isn’t always well received by everyone,” Kim said.  “Most people like consistency.”

Kim came to Paly Aug. 25, 2013 from an administration role at a San Jose school.  According to Kim, people welcomed her with open arms.

“Everyone has been very friendly, welcoming, warm, very helpful and just very accepting,” Kim said.

Kim worked in her previous position in San Jose for the last five years, before coming to Paly.

Kim said that there are distinct differences between Paly and the school she used to work at.

“The biggest difference for me is the open campus,” Kim said.  “The district that I came from had a closed campus policy, so the fact that students here are able to go across the street and it’s within the rules to do that was a big shocker for me.  I think [the open campus policy] really helps with the overall feel and the environment of the campus.  It makes it feel like it’s more of a college campus than a high school campus.”

According to Kim, she is doing all she can to get accustomed to Paly.

“My calendar is pretty much filled up with meetings,” Kim said.  “When I have time that is open in my calendar I like to get out in classroom. Also, learning about the kids; being outside during brunch and lunch and before school and after school, just talking to kids; talking with the ASB kids a lot… reading all the publications we have.”