How well do you think you know the principal of Pinole Valley High? Did you know that he grew up in LA? How about the fact that when Kibby first saw Spartan Bob he was terrified? Well, if you didn’t know, then you should really keep reading this article.

In high school Kibby Kleiman was not only a student at John F. Kennedy in Granada Hills, CA, he was also a part of the school’s leadership committee and a writer for a local newspaper. In Kibby’s freshman year he decided to join the boy’s basketball team because he was 6’2. He quickly learned that playing basketball wasn’t his thing, but he didn’t completely quit. He was offered the position as the announcer for the basketball team and happily accepted. From then on, Kibby thought he was going to grow up to be either an announcer or a sports writer. He did both, but he ultimately found his passion in education.    

Young Kibby started out his career in education when he was only 25 years old at Kennedy High School teaching English alongside being the school’s Speech and Debate coach. Despite childhood plans to be a mayor, he soon switched to teaching history, which he certainly knew a lot about considering he majored in History in college. After 19 years, Kibby transferred to Richmond and worked as an Assistant Principal for 5 years. In 2013, Pinole Valley High was lucky enough to pull Kibby out of the ocean of other principals. Kibby quickly became attached to PV and it’s new portable site. He even believes that the portables have brought us closer together and helped to create a diverse little community within the high school! Go Portable Valley!

Kibby loves his job as principal because “There’s no such thing as a regular day.” He learned that life always deviates from the plan, and if it doesn’t, then you aren’t living in the moment. He took that knowledge and changed PV into what it is today. Because of this belief, we currently have an undefeated football team, award-winning band, 13 different sports teams, and so many clubs that we lost count! 

The point is, we are very lucky to have Kibby as our principal. Hopefully, this article helped you to learn more about the leader of the small but mighty Spartans and how Kibby rolls in Pinole!