When Greg Avellino lost his job as the executive principal of Liverpool High School due to budget cuts in spring 2010, he wasn’t sure if he’d be back in the role of educational leader any time soon.
“Honestly, when I left Liverpool, I thought my next role was going be as a district office type of person,” said Avellino, who lives in Fayetteville.
But instead he was hired as associate principal at Fayetteville-Manlius High School for the 2010-11 school year, which allowed him to “go back, and get in with kids, and drive kids, have fun with kids,” he said. “And that’s the best part of my job … the kids.”
Now, after two years of “retooling and reprioritizing” his career at F-M, he’s been hired as the new principal of East Syracuse Minoa Central High School, effective July 1. He will replace Ed Ames, who is retiring after 40 years as a teacher, middle school principal and high school principal at ESM.
“Greg Avellino is a highly qualified educational leader with excellent leadership experience at the high school level,” said Donna DeSiato, superintendent of ESM Schools. “We look forward to Mr. Avellino joining the ESM community.”
Avellino couldn’t be happier to return to the profession he honed at Liverpool High School, and at Westhill High School before that.
“I’m excited to be the educational leader at the building,” he said.
He also knows that ESM is quite different from F-M, even though the two schools are just a few miles apart.
“For me, the biggest difference is that ESM is a comprehensive high school, and they still have career technical exploratory programs,” he said, explaining that ESM offers programs such as cosmetology and auto in-house that students at F-M can take through BOCES. “What’s nice about that is kids are still able to go between their academic core classes and their CTE classes [without leaving the building].”
He began going over an entry plan with DeSiato at the high school last Monday, May 7, and hopes to familiarize himself with students and staff between now and July.
“I want people to see me,” he said. “I want to have some conversations with people … because it’s a different culture and it’s a different community.”
Avellino said it will not be easy leaving F-M, the school from which his daughter, Rose, graduated last year. His two sons, Lewis and Joe, will be juniors and freshman at F-M High School in the fall.
“I was honored to give my daughter her diploma last year as she walked the stage, and that’s just something I’ll never get back,” he said.
“The relationships that I’ve built here in the last two years [I’ll miss the most],” he added.
Avellino will surely be missed by the students and staff at F-M.
“Greg has been an excellent member of our administrative team,” said F-M Principal Ray Kilmer. “His contributions will be missed at Fayetteville-Manlius High School. ESM has selected an outstanding instructional leader.”
