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Blaring music, cheerleaders waving pom-poms and a welcoming committee greeted students as they arrived at Mountain View High on Monday morning for the first day of the 2026-27 school year.
Senior Cinty Lin was stationed near the main quad as part of the welcoming committee, which helped freshmen and transfer students get settled into their new surroundings.
“Some freshmen may be scared,” Lin told the Voice. “We’re here to make them feel more supported.”
Principal Kip Glazer – dressed head-to-toe in yellow because it’s a school color – was also there to encourage students before classes started at 8:30 a.m. Since the first day sets the stage for the year to come, Glazer said she has to show school spirit and positivity herself.
“It matters for the students,” she said. “I have to model it.”
Clipboard in hand, she went to a number of classrooms during the first period, including math, dance, engineering, business, psychology, and special education classes, to check their progress and encourage the teachers and students. Now in her fifth year at Mountain View High, the first-day classroom visits are an annual routine for Glazer.
Monday was the first day of school for both Mountain View and Los Altos high schools. At the elementary and middle school level, students in the Mountain View Whisman School District will begin on Wednesday.
Completed campus construction
Many of the classrooms that Glazer visited Monday morning were part of the 100 and 200 wings, which were renovated last year. New this year are updated classrooms in the school’s 300 and 400 wings, which were expanded from roughly 700 to 900 square feet.
The construction has allowed every teacher to have their own classroom, Glazer said. That includes Marcia Babiak, who taught first period algebra II honors in her new room.
Babiak decorated her classroom with a number of Tigger stuffies that she’s received from students during her more than 20 years with the district. While the Tigger display has always had a place in her classroom, she said it’s gotten bigger because the room was expanded. A hallway was demolished between Babiak’s classroom and an adjacent room, allowing for a larger space, Glazer said.
“I came back in and it’s so – happy. It’s a great classroom, and they made it bigger. So much bigger,” she told the Voice. “I have 36 desks in here, and you would never guess.”
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