Officials at Preston High School in Throggs Neck abruptly announced last month that the school will permanently close in June, sparking an uproar within the community and raising concerns about the transparency of the decision-making process.
Preston’s Board of Trustees cited declining enrollment and the rising costs of maintaining its aging buildings as reasons for the closure. However, many within the school community argue that enrollment remains strong and that there was no prior indication that the school would close due to financial instability.
Preston’s property is owned by the White Plains-based Sisters of the Divine Compassion, who opened the private Catholic school in 1947, which now has 370 all-female students. It sits in a residential neighborhood overlooking the East River and still includes a former convent house, known to many as “the mansion,” that dates back to the 1800s.
The Sisters are currently leasing the property to Preston, which is a separate corporation under the auspices of the Sisters of the Divine Compassion. The Sisters decided to sell the property a few years back, and they entered into negotiations only with Preston, members said in a recent TV interview. But after 18 months of back-and-forth discussions, they concluded that the school lacked the financial viability to purchase the site.
Preston is represented by a board of trustees consisting of six members, three of whom are nuns with the Sisters of the Divine Compassion.
The closure came as a shock to many and raised doubts about how the decision was made. A newly-formed alumni group criticized the board’s composition, noting the dominant presence of nuns and lack of alumni and faculty, aside from the principal.
“Students, faculty, and alumnae are demanding answers about the decision, which appears to have been made without transparency or meaningful stakeholder involvement,” the group said in a statement.
But the board said the school simply could not keep up with today’s financial realities.
“Preston High School is not in a position to sustain itself beyond the near future nor the long term,” their statement read.
Other local Catholic schools are shutting their doors, citing financial reasons. Several in the Bronx recently announced they will close at the end of this school year, including All Hallows High School in Concourse, Sacred Heart School in Highbridge and Immaculate Conception School in Melrose.
However, the Preston alumni group maintains their school was not on the financial brink. The group said on its website that “contrary to recent reports” of the school’s financial struggles and low enrollment, it is “currently operating at full capacity.”
The Bronx Times reached out to school principal Jennifer Connolly, a 1992 Preston graduate, but received a response instead from the alumni group. “With 97% enrollment projected for the fall and the school currently operating at 92% capacity, claims of low enrollment and financial hardship do not align with reality,” the group stated.
A spokesperson for the Sisters told the Bronx Times that since the Preston negotiations fell through, the property has not been listed for sale.
Sister Carol Peterson, a member of the board of trustees, acknowledged the heartbreak of losing Preston during a TV interview but said conflicting narratives and a lack of trust have only deepened the school community’s distress.
“With the misinformation, they’re continuing to suffer more than they need to,” Peterson said.
The fight to save Preston
Preston is a special place for many students, faculty and families who have banded together in an effort to save their beloved school.
They have held at least two rallies that have drawn hundreds and have created a “Save Preston” petition with over 10,000 signatures, as well as an Instagram account @savePreston, which has more followers than the school’s official account. One of the @savePreston posts contains a direct appeal to the school’s famous alum, singer Jennifer Lopez. A few posts discuss the potential for legal action against the nuns.
The closure of Preston has brought out the fight among young attendees like senior Christina Castillo, who said her time at the school has been lifechanging.
“You really find your own family there,” said Castillo in an interview with the Bronx Times.
Before high school, she was quiet and content to stay in the background, she said. But Preston brought out a different side of her and deepened her connection to her Bronx community, she said.
Castillo and others run a club called Compassion Connection, where students have written letters to the elderly and donated care packages and sandwiches to the homeless, among other initiatives.
Castillo said she wanted to avoid demonizing the Sisters but views the school’s financial crisis as “an outright lie.” She never noticed any sign of cutbacks, and today’s students have more school-funded opportunities, offerings and financial aid than ever, she said.
She also said the Sisters appear to have not been fully transparent, even with others in the convent. Castillo said she spoke with a nun who didn’t know about the failed purchase deal and closure until students did.
As the Preston community speaks out, many have blamed the Sisters, accusing them of selling out and neglecting their mission of charity and girls’ education.
“This [closure] is not the school’s doing,” the parent of a current senior told the Bronx Times on Feb. 26. “It’s like greed took over compassion.”
Contrary to what the Sisters said, “Preston is thriving,” said Cristina Fragale, the school’s senior director of recruitment and development, as quoted in a statement on the alumni group’s website.
“Preston will have 97% enrollment this fall and is currently at 92% capacity. … It’s clear that students and parents are invested in Preston’s future, and so are we.”
Tough realities
The Sisters said in the TV interview that they went to great lengths to try to make the sale work for the school.
Sister Laura Donovan, president of the Sisters and member of the school’s board of trustees, explained that around 2019, the Sisters began looking to sell the four properties they owned, including Preston. With the average age of membership at 83, they determined they could not continue as landlords, said Donovan.
They sold three of their four properties, with the Preston site being the exception, they said. “[The school] struggled with coming up with a plan that would be acceptable” and were left with the option to either relocate or close, according to Donovan.
The Sisters have only negotiated with the school up until this point and the property has yet to be put on the market.
Cathy Nolan, director of advancement for the Sisters, said she had hoped that a deal would go through.
“We were always hopeful that they would be able to do it, and the Sisters always had the students in mind,” Nolan said.
However, the composition of the school’s board of trustees has come under heavy criticism since its size and makeup changed significantly during the negotiation period.
The Sisters increased their representation on the board during the negotiations, while the number of outside voices declined. The Sisters said they wanted more representation to “to get a better sense of how the school was operating” financially, said Carol Peterson, one of the Sisters, in the TV news interview.
But some lobbying for Preston noticed that the number of board members decreased by more than half since 2021.
Past alumni newsletters show that the board shrank from 13 in 2021 to just six currently, and it fully lost alumni representation between then and now, other than by the principal who serves as an ex-officio member.
The 2021 board had 2 nuns and 5 alums among its 13 members; the 2022 board had 2 nuns and 5 alums among 12 members; and the 2023 board had one nun and three alums among its seven members. Today, three of the six-member board are Sisters, and there appears to be no outside alumni representation.
‘You can’t escape time’
After months of negotiations, the Sisters and the board of trustees landed on a price that the school would pay over five years, according to the Sisters. Lawyers drew up the contract in December 2024, and the Sisters believed the deal was done.
But soon after, the Sisters said the school was unable to pay the planned first installment. The nuns said they offered to take only a percentage upfront and the rest later.
The Sisters became worried that the school did not have the financial means to purchase the property. Any property owner must have strong finances, especially to afford maintenance for old buildings, the Sisters said.
To them, the school looked to be on financially shaky ground. They agreed that enrollment has been stable in recent years but said it is down 34% since 2012. The school would now need about 100 more students to remain financially viable, they said.
Though Preston officials have recently cited 400 as current capacity, the school’s 2009-2010 annual report said that enrollment that year was 569 — significantly higher than its current 370.
In the wake of the sale falling through, Sisters said they understand the anger from students and teachers. The Sisters said the school administration was always involved and claimed that they kept elected officials in the loop throughout negotiations.
With the closure looming, the Sisters now said they feel disappointed by the lack of trust from the school community. They acknowledged that Preston administration tried hard to make the deal to keep the school open.
But in the end, “You can’t escape time, and it was time,” said Peterson.
Call for transparency
Elected officials are calling for an open dialogue with the Sisters and more transparency about how the closure decision was made.
City Council Member and Majority Leader Amanda Farías, a 2007 Preston graduate, told the Bronx Times that she “adored” her alma mater and that the school gave her “an opportunity unlike any other.” But she said she was stunned to learn of the closure and had no knowledge that the school was on the financial brink.
In 2023, she received a letter about the potential sale of the property and “from that point on, silence,” Farías said. Last June, she was on campus to receive an alumni award and heard no updates, and she knew the school was recently enrolling incoming students, which she took as a good sign.
Farías expressed her disappointment in a March 1 Instagram post. The closure decision “appears to have been made without transparency or meaningful input from students, parents and the broader community,” Farías wrote. “Like so many in the Preston community, I am seeking answers.”
She requested a meeting with the Sisters but was connected with the public relations team, not the Sisters directly, she told the Bronx Times.
Farías said she is exploring potential ways to get the city involved in the fight to keep Preston open, but she also wants to engage with the Sisters and board of trustees.
“I need to get a better idea of where they’re coming from,” she said.
Council Member Kristy Marmorato, whose district includes the school, said in a Feb. 26 statement posted to Instagram that she was “saddened and outraged” to learn of the closure.
“I stand with the students, families and faculty of Preston who fought tirelessly to keep their school open. Their dedication should have been met with the same commitment to preserving education, rather than allowing another yet another community institution to disappear.”
The Sisters said they did their part to keep elected officials informed.
“In-person meetings with local officials are not planned at this time, but we’ve kept many of them in the loop over the past 18 months,” a spokesperson told the Bronx Times on March 11.
Keeping up the fight
Those who love Preston are not going away quietly.
When students first learned of the impending closure, they hugged, cried and spent time in a prayer service “just mourning together,” said Castillo.
But they quickly sprang into action, starting the Save Preston Instagram account and holding early-morning and weekend rallies to show how much the school means to them.
“We have a lot of momentum for our movement to not close Preston,” said Castillo. Many current freshmen, sophomores and juniors are delaying their transfer paperwork in hopes that something will work out, she said. “I just really like how we came back stronger as a community.”
Castillo lives just across the street from campus and worries about what the loss of Preston would mean for the neighborhood. Local businesses rely on students, and vice versa, and the campus keeps the neighborhood lively, she said.
“When the clock strikes 2:49, there’s Preston girls everywhere, walking around, shopping, eating,” she said.
“I know girls who have been to Uncle Louie’s, like, 20 times during midterm week because they just want to get a snack. When the school goes away, who’s gonna fill that role?”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
