Science teacher Dave Boicourt retires from PRHS after 28 years

A lot happens in a 28 year span such as teaching Spanish speakers English, Chemistry and “eXtreme science.” But science teacher Dave Boicourt is saying sayonara to PRHS after nearly three decades of a legacy.

Boicourt taught English Language Development to non-native speakers (ELD) for his first five years. He also taught Biology, Earth Science, Conceptual Physics, Chemistry. For seven years, he taught ‘eXtreme science,’ a course he created.

Boicourt started off at University of California San Diego, then transferred to University of Santa Barbara to earn  a bachelor’s degree. After his first degree, he continued on to earn his master’s in teaching credential at Claremont Graduate University.

His teaching style is full of humor and expression, bringing the curriculum to life. Students easily engage with difficult science topics through his jokes and cool style.

Senior Nick Cave had Boicourt his sophomore year for Chemistry. Cave was a new student to PRHS, and Boicourt made the environment welcoming by regularly asking how his day was going.

“It really shows how much he cares about his students. He greeted me with a huge smile, and he’s taught me so much about science and life in general. When you’re having a hard time grasping the topics, he will always go out of his way to make sure you know what’s going on,” Cave said.

Boicourt has also influenced his fellow science teachers.

Chemistry teacher Evan Johnston was mentored by Boicourt as he was a student teacher. Johnston learned teaching is much more than just about curriculum.

“I really try to model off of him, how much he cared about the students, because you see some teachers and they care about the thing they teach. [Boicourt] cared about each student, on a daily basis I saw him taking time to get to know his students,” Johnston said.

Preempting his retirement, Boicourt made a list of 49 things to do, a bucket list, which he began at the mark of 49 days of school left.

How does he see his retirement going? He instantly said, “Epic. But also quiet, lots of small things I want to do. And a few large things.”

One of the larger projects is taking a road trip to all 58 of the national parks on several trips with the increased time he will have outside of Room 307.