So he gave himself a year to work on it, announcing that he will retire a little more than a year from now at the end of the 2008-09 school year.
"I could have gone this year," Dirnbeck said. "But with the ninth-grade campus coming, I wanted to make sure it got off to a smooth start."
Dirnbeck, 55, has been an administrator at the school for eight years -- four as principal and four before that as assistant principal -- taught math for 25 years before that. He said it's hard to give up the career he loves, but it's time to do other things.
"With the way the teacher retirement system is, you would work for about 10 percent of your salary if you stay on after you reach full retirement benefits," Dirnbeck said. "I know guys that stay on because they don't know what else they would do with their time. But I think it's time for some younger blood here."
District 203 School Board President Greg Cundiff said Dirnbeck's shoes will be hard to fill.
"We're sure going to miss him. He has been a fantastic principal," Cundiff said. "The students like him. The board has a challenge to find someone as good as him."
Cundiff said the search for Dirnbeck's replacement already has begun with hopes a hire can be made while he is still on the job.
"We'd like for him to have the opportunity to train and mentor the new person," Cundiff said.
Dirnbeck plans to play some golf with his wife, Kay, and maybe take a long overdue vacation when his job is complete.
"My wife and I haven't had a chance to hardly travel at all," Dirnbeck said. "She's a retired second-grade teacher, and we never had a honeymoon. We got married on a Saturday and went back to work on Monday."
While he loves the job of being principal, he says it requires him to work 12-hour days, six days a week.
"I get a lot of grief from the kids because they see me at the grocery store or someplace else with my school ID badge still on," Dirnbeck said. "They ask my wife if I shower with it on."
Dirnbeck's teaching career started at Althoff Catholic High School in Belleville, where he spent one year after graduating from Quincy University. He spent 11 years teaching in the Signal Hill school system before moving to O'Fallon, where he taught for 13 years before becoming an administrator.
O'Fallon Township High School has grown dramatically in Dirnbeck's time there. When he started in 1987 there were 1,400 students and 70 teachers.
"Now there are 2,500 students and the staff is twice as big as it used to be," Dirnbeck said. "Now days you have distractions like cell phones and other electronics that you didn't have to worry about before. But the high quality of the education students get here is still the same."
Contact reporter Scott Wuerz at swuerz@bnd.com or 239-2626.
