Pavel Dvorak, BHS’s longtime physical education teacher whom the district had believed to be retired, is returning to school on Monday to teach for the first time since June of 2019. According to the administration, Dvorak had mistakenly filled in the “retirement” bubble instead of the “sabbatical” bubble on the Employee Status Change form he submitted to the BHS administration during the 2018-19 school year.

“We honestly have no clue how this mistake slipped through the cracks,” Assistant Principal Herb Perez said. “I mean, he filled out the form in November. We even announced his retirement at an assembly!”

Dvorak began his sabbatical in July of 2019 to embark on an almost two-year-long solo mountain biking journey in Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains. He brought only basic necessities and hunted and gathered all of his food. He biked upwards of 6000 miles in total—entirely without contact with the outside world. He returned on the night of Sunday, March 28th, the night before he planned to return to teaching.

The ultimate frisbee team was scrimmaging on the turf on Monday when they spotted Dvorak wandering maskless on Institute Road.

“He looked a bit bewildered and somewhat lost,” senior Jake Lipkin, a player on the ultimate team, said. “Then he spotted us and asked where everyone was—and oh boy did I have a lot of explaining to do.”

“First I see an empty parking lot and the building surrounded by caution tape,” Dvorak said. “And then I see these students all with facemasks on the field playing frisbee during a schoolday. I was like ‘What in the world did I miss?’”

Lipkin and others on the ultimate team directed Dvorak to DtBHS is and lent him an extra mask.

“I guess this is what happens to BHS when I’m not there,” Dvorak quipped.