While most donned the customary green at this year’s Throggs Neck St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a large contingent turned out in the colors of maroon and white—the signature hues of Preston High School.
More than a hundred students, parents, and alumni of the Catholic all-girls school took to the parade route, using the event as a rallying cry to save their beloved institution, which abruptly announced last month that it would close at the end of the academic year.
Generations of women marched in solidarity carrying signs that read, “#savepreston” with a QR code leading to a petition with over 10,000 signatures urging the school’s Board of Directors to consider alternatives. Alumni wore sweatshirts with “Preston Forever” printed on the front in the school’s signature maroon.
Lucia Jimenez-Morales graduated from Preston High School in 2000 and has a daughter attending the school as a junior. While walking the parade route, she told the Bronx Times that she was heartbroken when she heard the school would close its doors.
“She’s the class of 2026,” Jimenez-Morales said, referring to her daughter, noting that she had dreams of seeing her teenager graduate from the school. “So, I can’t let them take that away from me.”
Preston’s landlord’s, the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, announced the school’s closing following a failed deal for Preston High School to purchase the site saying that the school was financially unstable, and doubting the long-term viability of consistent enrollment.
But the decision sparked an uproar throughout the community, prompting parents and alumni to question why they hadn’t been informed earlier of any financial hurdles the school might be facing or given an opportunity to come together as a community to solve them.
The Sisters of the Divine Compassion did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although they have said in multiple statements and interviews that they have done their part to engage with the school about buying the property and worried that misinformation was eroding the community’s trust.
Sunday’s parade, which is usually an opportunity for local high schools to show off their marching bands, cheer squads or color guard, transformed into an opportunity for collective action for the Preston High School community.
After reaching the end of the parade route, Preston students, parents and alumni continued their march through the residential streets to in front of the nearby high school on Schurz Avenue. Annalyse Gorritz, a sophomore at Preston High School, told the Bronx Times that the school community has become like family.
“I don’t want to go to a different school,” Gorritz said. “This is like my second home and I want to make sure I stay.”
Isabella Dinuovo, a junior, also rallied in front of the school on Sunday, echoing her classmates’ sentiment that the school is a family. Dinuovo also shared that Preston is part of her own family’s history.
“My sisters both graduated from here and I look up to them so much,” Dinuovo told the Bronx Times. “I want to follow in their footsteps and leave my footprint here.”
Hope seemed briefly on the horizon, as exclusively reported in the Bronx Times, when Bally’s philanthropic foundation offered to buy the land and cover maintenance costs. The foundation planned to lease the land back to the school for $1 a year for the next 25 years, while giving Preston the opportunity to purchase the land.
The nonprofit is funded by Bally’s corporation which hopes to secure approval for a controversial new casino and hotel on the Ferry Point Park property where it already operates the city’s public golf course.
But sources told the Bronx Times that the sisters pulled out of the deal in the eleventh hour with little to no explanation why.
Then on March 13, Preston’s Board of Trustees issued a letter to the student body and alumni reiterating that the decision to close the school 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 other three board members who are not Sisters.
“We will not be entertaining any circumstances that would alter this fact,” the letter said. “We do not want to foster false hope that the ongoing ‘save the school’ attempts will reverse the closing of the school.”
But advocates for the school have continued their campaign anyways, marching in the Throggs Neck St. Patrick’s Day parade just three days after receiving the trustee’s letter.
The school’s principal, Jennifer Connolly, declined to comment on the continuing “save the school” efforts, citing a nondisclosure agreement.
Swathes of women clad in gray Preston Forever hoodies also marched at Sunday’s parade. They represented an independent, alumni-run taskforce of the same moniker, which issued a statement to the Bronx Times.
“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 Forever said in a statement.
