Preston Excessive Faculty college students, mother and father and alumni used the Throggs Neck St. Patrick’s Day Parade to make their voices heard, chanting “Save our school” whereas marching alongside East Tremont Avenue
Credit score: Sadie Brown
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Whereas most donned the customary inexperienced at this yr’s Throggs Neck St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a big contingent turned out within the colours of maroon and white—the signature hues of Preston Excessive Faculty.
Greater than 100 college students, mother and father, and alumni of the Catholic all-girls faculty took to the parade route, utilizing the occasion as a rallying cry to avoid wasting their beloved establishment, which abruptly introduced final month that it might shut on the finish of the tutorial yr.
Generations of ladies marched in solidarity carrying indicators that learn, “#savepreston” with a QR code resulting in a petition with over 10,000 signatures urging the varsity’s Board of Administrators to contemplate options. Alumni wore sweatshirts with “Preston Forever” printed on the entrance within the faculty’s signature maroon.
It wasn’t simply college students marching to avoid wasting Preston Excessive Faculty—mother and father and alumni joined in, carrying indicators and carrying “Preston Forever” hoodies to indicate their love for the varsity, which is ready to shut in June. Credit score: Sadie Brown
Lucia Jimenez-Morales graduated from Preston Excessive Faculty in 2000 and has a daughter attending the varsity as a junior. Whereas strolling the parade route, she instructed the Bronx Occasions that she was heartbroken when she heard the varsity would shut its doorways.
“She’s the class of 2026,” Jimenez-Morales mentioned, referring to her daughter, noting that she had desires of seeing her teenager graduate from the varsity. “So, I can’t let them take that away from me.”
Preston’s landlord’s, the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, introduced the varsity’s closing following a failed deal for Preston Excessive Faculty to buy the location saying that the varsity was financially unstable, and doubting the long-term viability of constant enrollment.
However the choice sparked an uproar all through the neighborhood, prompting mother and father and alumni to query why they hadn’t been knowledgeable earlier of any monetary hurdles the varsity is perhaps going through or given a possibility to come back collectively as a neighborhood to resolve them.
The Sisters of the Divine Compassion didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, though they’ve mentioned in a number of statements and interviews that they’ve executed their half to have interaction with the varsity about shopping for the property and fearful that misinformation was eroding the neighborhood’s belief.
Preston Excessive Faculty’s cheer squad participated within the parade, however as a substitute of their common festive cheers, they led chants like, “Don’t take our school away!” Credit score: Sadie Brown
Sunday’s parade, which is normally a possibility for native excessive colleges to indicate off their marching bands, cheer squads or colour guard, reworked into a possibility for collective motion for the Preston Excessive Faculty neighborhood.
After reaching the top of the parade route, Preston college students, mother and father and alumni continued their march by way of the residential streets to in entrance of the close by highschool on Schurz Avenue. Annalyse Gorritz, a sophomore at Preston Excessive Faculty, instructed the Bronx Occasions that the varsity neighborhood has develop into like household.
“I don’t want to go to a different school,” Gorritz mentioned. “This is like my second home and I want to make sure I stay.”
Isabella Dinuovo, a junior, additionally rallied in entrance of the varsity on Sunday, echoing her classmates’ sentiment that the varsity is a household. Dinuovo additionally shared that Preston is a part of her circle of relatives’s historical past.
“My sisters both graduated from here and I look up to them so much,” Dinuovo instructed the Bronx Occasions. “I want to follow in their footsteps and leave my footprint here.”
Hope appeared briefly on the horizon, as completely reported within the Bronx Occasions, when Bally’s philanthropic basis provided to purchase the land and canopy upkeep prices. The muse deliberate to lease the land again to the varsity for $1 a yr for the following 25 years, whereas giving Preston the chance to buy the land.
The nonprofit is funded by Bally’s company which hopes to safe approval for a controversial new on line casino and lodge on the Ferry Level Park property the place it already operates town’s public golf course.
However sources instructed the Bronx Occasions that the sisters pulled out of the deal within the eleventh hour with little to no reason.
College students concluded the St. Patrick’s Day parade with a march by way of Throggs Neck, gathering outdoors the gates of Preston Excessive Faculty, the place they sang and chanted in protest. Credit score: Sadie Brown
Then on March 13, Preston’s Board of Trustees issued a letter to the scholar physique and alumni reiterating that the choice to shut the varsity was “final.” Three of the six board members signed the letter, all Sisters of the Divine Compassion. It was not signed by any of the opposite three board members who will not be Sisters.
“We will not be entertaining any circumstances that would alter this fact,” the letter mentioned. “We do not want to foster false hope that the ongoing ‘save the school’ attempts will reverse the closing of the school.”
However advocates for the varsity have continued their marketing campaign anyhow, marching within the Throggs Neck St. Patrick’s Day parade simply three days after receiving the trustee’s letter.
The college’s principal, Jennifer Connolly, declined to touch upon the persevering with “save the school” efforts, citing a nondisclosure settlement.
An impartial group of alumni shaped the taskforce. Swathes of ladies clad in grey Preston Endlessly hoodies additionally marched at Sunday’s parade. They represented an impartial, alumni-run taskforce of the identical moniker, which issued an announcement to the Bronx Occasions.
“With thriving enrollment and full funding, Preston is prepared to maintain its independence under any lessor to continue educating young women in the Bronx in the tradition of dignity, honor, respect, and compassion,” Preston Endlessly mentioned in an announcement.
