Rock Falls elementary school superintendent retiring after decades of service

ROCK FALLS – After almost 30 years of service, Superintendent Dan Arickx is saying goodbye to Rock Falls Elementary School District 13.

Arickx plans to retire at the end of the school year. Before serving as District 13’s superintendent for the past 15 years, he was Merrill Elementary School’s principal for six years and taught eighth-grade math at Rock Falls Middle School for eight years before that.

Despite his lengthy career, Arickx did not always plan to become an educator.

“I always knew I wanted to do something with math, and so when I first went to college, I was planning on becoming an accountant,” Arickx said. “But I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do, and after some thinking, I realized how much I enjoyed working with kids. So, I decided to go into education and never looked back.”

Arickx is proud of the progress he has made in District 13, especially in expanding preschool access and enhancing counseling services for students. He also spearheaded the creation of new cafeterias and the installation of upgraded heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems at both Dillon and Merrill elementary schools.

“When I started here we had one counselor,” Arickx said. “Since then, we’ve added counselors so that there is at least one counselor in every building. Another thing I’m proud of is being able to reduce a lot of our class sizes to 20 or fewer students.”

Over the years, Arickx also has experienced his share of challenges as superintendent, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when state funding for schools was largely dependent upon following state guidelines, he said.

“We had a lot of people that did not like those guidelines and wanted us to drop them and just not get the funding,” Arickx said. “But that’s 70% of our funding and is just not possible. So, there were a lot of upset parents and families. We had board members who were torn on what to do. But the bottom line is, we did what we had to do to get the kids the education that they needed while still being able to get state funding.”

Arickx said he cherishes the many relationships he has made with staff, students and their families but is looking forward to enjoying his retirement.

“I’ve seen too many people hang on for too long, and then they weren’t able to enjoy their retirement,” Arickx said. “I’ve been to Iceland and the Gulf of Mexico, and I’d really like to travel to Greenland someday. I might try picking up golf again.”

Even though he is retiring from education, Arickx still plans to serve his community. He is on the board of directors for the Sterling-Rock Falls Family YMCA and also is a member of the Rock Falls Optimist Club.

Streator Elementary School District 44 Superintendent Kelli Virgil is expected to take over Arickx’s position once her contract is finalized, which is expected to happen in time to introduce her at February’s board meeting.

Arickx left Virgil with these parting words during an interview with Shaw Local: “You have an amazing administrative team, a great group of building principals and staff, so be sure to collaborate with them whenever possible.”