diff --git a/.k8s_ci.Dockerfile b/.k8s_ci.Dockerfile
index 65067806671e..cd4ad9fc7078 100644
--- a/.k8s_ci.Dockerfile
+++ b/.k8s_ci.Dockerfile
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 ARG ROOT_DIR=/galaxy
 ARG SERVER_DIR=$ROOT_DIR/server
 
-ARG STAGE1_BASE=python:3.10-slim
+ARG STAGE1_BASE=python:3.12-slim
 ARG FINAL_STAGE_BASE=$STAGE1_BASE
 ARG GALAXY_USER=galaxy
 ARG GALAXY_PLAYBOOK_REPO=https://github.com/galaxyproject/galaxy-docker-k8s