Preston High School in Throggs Neck showed an outpouring of gratitude to the Chair of Bally’s Corporation Soo Kim on Wednesday for his role in rescuing the cherished all-girls Catholic high school from its impending closure at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year.
At the final PTA meeting of the year, students and administrators presented Kim with an official Preston High School sweatshirt, effectively inducting the executive into the close-knit ranks of the school community, which has become a cornerstone of the Throggs Neck neighborhood.
“I actually will now have to explain that I didn’t go here,” Kim said, joking about sporting merch from an all-girls Catholic High School.
Kim was instrumental in facilitating the $8.5 million deal by the Bally’s Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bally’s Corp., to purchase the Preston property from its landowners, the Sisters of the Divine Compassion. The sisters announced in February—much to the surprise of teachers and students—that they were shutting the school down for good in order to sell the property. The sisters also claimed that the school was not in a financial condition to buy it.
Bally’s, which currently operates the nearby public golf course at Ferry Point Park and is pursuing plans to build a casino and resort at the site, stepped in through its foundation to acquire the property—effectively giving Preston High School a new lease on life.
The head of the gaming giant told families at the PTA meeting that the deal with Bally’s Foundation would never have been possible without students, families, teachers and alumnae organizing a months-long campaign – which garnered national attention – to #SavePreston.
“The reality is, all of you together helped save this school,” Kim said. “May the best days of the school be ahead of it. I think the future is bright. Not the very least of which is that we’re going to be right here with you as well.”
The victory was fueled by the relentless advocacy of the Preston community, whose supporters refused to take “no” for an answer. It was later revealed—prompting widespread frustration—that the Sisters had announced the closure after withdrawing from a previous agreement to sell the property to the school.
The February announcement shocked teachers and students.
For Alivia Toapha, a rising junior, the news meant she would have to find a new school, an awful thought for a student in the Preston Players theater club and the National Honor Society.
“ In middle school, I was shy, I was quiet,” Toapha said in an interview with the Bronx Times. “And here I really blossomed as a person. So having to move to a new school was genuinely going to just flip my world upside down.”
Ava Toapha, Alivia’s younger sister, had already been accepted to join the incoming freshman class for the 2025–2026 school year. She described the emotional turmoil of watching her future at Preston suddenly slip away.
“I was all over the place because then I was worrying about where I would go after or what happened with scholarships I would’ve gotten and everything that could have been,” the younger Toapha said.
Students, parents, staff, and alumnae pushed back against the religious order’s claim that declining enrollment and poor financial health justified closing the school, which has served the community since 1947. They argued that Preston was not only stable, but thriving—consistently graduating young women who went on to successful careers and leadership roles. Faced with the threat of losing their beloved institution, the community took action.
When Kim learned that the school was slated to close, he said he knew the Bally’s Foundation could help. Bally’s first developed a relationship with Preston High School last year after hosting an event at the school with the Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) encouraging young women to take up golfing. Since then, Kim told the Bronx Times that Bally’s had been looking for more ways to get involved in the surrounding community.
“ We’ve said that we are good neighbors,” Kim said. “But you don’t always have an opportunity to do as you say. In this case, it just so happened that we were able to show people that we mean what we say.”
Although Bally’s hopes to win one of three downstate gaming licenses and develop a casino complex next to its Ferry Point golf course, Kim told the Bronx Times that the project had little impact on his desire to help Preston.
“ We operate the golf course,” Kim said. “We’re gonna be here for years, for decades. So, this is the least we can do.”
He said preserving schools that provide quality education, and a strong community is important to him. He became involved in advocacy for his own alma mater, Stuyvesant High School, pushing back when then-Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed eliminating the required specialized high school admissions tests in favor of a different system.
Kim said he recognized the same sense of loyalty to the institution in the students and alumnae of Preston.
“ I saw that in this community’s battle for Preston,” Kim said. “So, it just impacted me in a very visceral way.”
But at first the sisters rebuffed Bally’s offer to purchase the property for their asking price of $8.5 million.
The foundation even promised to address the sisters’ concerns about the aging building, adding an additional $1.5 million to revitalize the building and offering to lease the property to the school for $1 a year for 25 years, with a buyout offer. The order pulled out of negotiations in the eleventh hour with little explanation, resolute in their decision to close the school no matter how many protests or social media campaigns the Preston community organized.
It was at that point that Preston students, families, staff, alumnae and elected officials began reaching out to the New York State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office has oversight authority of non-profits in the state, to step in.
James held a public hearing that garnered national attention last month, where students, teachers, parents and alumnae shared testimony while hundreds of supporters looked on. They said that they had been shut out of the decision-making process and were concerned that Preston High School was being mischaracterized as a fledgling institution with poor enrollment when nothing could be further from the truth.
The women repeatedly told James their education at Preston built them into curious, intelligent women of faith who care for their communities and take on leadership roles. Toapha, who was active in the movement to save Preston and testified in front of James, said that the experience taught her the value of speaking up.
“ It taught all of us to really stand up for what we think is right, because Preston always taught us that,” Toapha said “And really being able to broadcast that to everybody is important because it shows how strong our school is.”
In a remarkable turn of events, James’ office announced on April 22 that Bally’s Foundation and the Sisters of the Divine Compassion had reached an agreement for the sale of the school and that Preston would remain open.
Preston’s Principal Jennifer Connolly told the Bronx Times at Wednesday’s PTA meeting that saving the school was personal to her.
“ As an alum, I know the importance of a Preston education,” she said. “I know what it means to be a Preston woman and go out in the world. The knowledge that we can do that for generations to come is amazing.”
The school’s uncertain future in recent months has had an impact on future enrollment. While some of incoming freshman class like Sarah Coloado chose to wait and see if the community could save the school, some families enrolled their rising freshman elsewhere. Coloado told the Bronx Times that she knew Preston was worth waiting for.
“ When I found out Preston was going stay open, I started jumping – doing everything because I was just so happy,” she said. “When I came here, it just felt like home to me, and I knew that I’d make amazing memories of everyone here and be at home.”
Connolly was straightforward, but reassuring with members of the PTA, saying that the administration was focused on “ protecting our student enrollment” and working to maintain “ historic levels of financial support for Preston families.” With some 72% of Preston students receiving some kind of scholarship, when asked what the school needed to continue to provide financial assistance to so many families, Connolly simply said, “Donors.”
Preston, however, has gained a powerful new ally. Kim told the Bronx Times that Bally’s partnership with the school was only just beginning, pledging to support its continued growth and success.
“ People will always think of us as Preston succeeds, so that means we need to make sure Preston succeeds,” Kim said.
Toapha said the news means she will now graduate from the school that helped shape her into the young woman she is today—alongside friends who have come to feel like family. After a turbulent year that took an emotional toll on the entire student body, she described the announcement as a profound relief.
“It was genuinely a weight off of all of our shoulders,” Toapha said. “We can finally breathe. Now we can focus on our school. We can focus on the future.”
