GUILDERLAND — Harry Kachadurian will serve as Guilderland High School’s principal until a permanent principal takes over in November. He started work on Wednesday.
Kachadurian wants to see the new school year off to a smooth start. "Nothing’s broken there; I’m just going to be the caretaker," he told The Enterprise. "You’ll be able to find me. I’ll be in the hallways and able to communicate."

After 20 months as Guilderland’s principal, Michael Piccirillo is leaving this month for an administrative post at Saratoga Springs City Schools.

Piccirillo was the second short-term principal at Guilderland High School with an interim principal in between. When John Whipple retired in 2003, after 14 years as principal, he was replaced by Ismael Villafane.

Villafane left after two years to return to Texas where he had spent decades as an educator. Frank Tedesco, a retired administrator who spent three decades in education, filled in at Guilderland after Villafane announced he was leaving in June of 2005 until Piccirillo started working just after Thanksgiving that year.

Kachadurian has been an educator for 36 years. He majored in health and physical education at the State University of New York College at Brockport and got his first job, teaching health, at Chatham. He worked there for 15 years and coached varsity football all those years as well as some track and baseball.

He met a young math teacher at Chatham, Gregory Aidala, who later became Guilderland’s superintendent.
Kachadurian called Aidala a "straight shooter," and went on, "That’s what I am; I tell you the truth and move on."

Aidala recommended Kachadurian for the interim post after interviewing three other candidates, he said.

The school board appointed Kachadurian Monday night, without naming or discussing him, as part of a consent-agenda vote that included many different appointments. The board had discussed the appointment in executive session at its last meeting. Kachadurian will be paid $450 a day, Aidala told The Enterprise.
"He’s an experienced principal coming from a similar type of school district," Aidala said on Tuesday, "and certainly is well-versed in being principal of a large suburban high school."

Kachadurian began working for the South Colonie School District in 1984, first as a health teacher and track and football coach. He became associate principal of Colonie High School in 1991 after earning a master’s degree in administration and policy studies at the University at Albany.
"My wife’s a saint," he said, recalling the busy time in his life when he was teaching, coaching, and pursuing a graduate degree; his wife took the lead in raising their two young children, now grown. Their son is now a high-school English teacher and their daughter and her husband live in Orlando, Fla. and both work for Disney. "We adore the grandchildren, two little boys," said Kachadurian of his daughter’s sons.

In 1996, Kachadurian became building principal of Colonie High, retiring in 2005.
"I thoroughly enjoy high-school culture, staff, and certainly the students. They’re just at a great time in their lives with such opportunities, although they don’t always realize it," he said with a chuckle.
Asked about his goals for his three-and-a-half months at Guilderland, Kachadurian said, "It’s important the school year gets off to a smooth start and everyone does what they do best. Guilderland has a great academic reputation."
This is the first time Kachadurian has interrupted his two years of retirement to fill in as an administrator. "I’m doing it because I know Greg Aidala and I know the district," he said, noting he was familiar with Guilderland from his coaching days. He stressed that, while athletics is an important part of education, so are music and the arts.
Kachadurian and his wife like to say of retirement, "Every day is Saturday." Kachadurian went on, "Now I’ll have Mondays."
Aidala himself is retiring in the fall. "Assuming all goes well with selection of the new supervisor," he said, "we want to move fast enough to have the new supervisor in place for the second round of interviews" for principal.
"Ideally," he concluded, "we’ll have a new high school principal by Nov. 1 or before."