By New York Metropolis Council Majority Chief Amanda Farías, New York State Meeting Member Michael Benedetto and New York State Senator Nathalia Fernandez
Posted on March 28, 2025
Preston Excessive College is predicted to completely shut in June after the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, who personal the location, turned down a proposal from Bally’s philanthropic basis to purchase the property and maintain the varsity open.
File picture courtesy of Preston Excessive College
We have been deeply upset to be taught that the Sisters of the Divine Compassion rejected the beneficiant and well timed supply from Bally’s Basis North America to buy the Preston Excessive College property, successfully halting efforts to save lots of this beloved establishment.
The Bronx Instances article precisely highlights our collective shock and frustration on the Sisters’ unexplained resolution, regardless of the inspiration’s willingness to pay $8.5 million—matching the Sisters’ unique asking worth—and to lease the property again to Preston for simply $1 per 12 months.
As native elected officers, together with Majority Chief Amanda Farías—a proud 2007 Preston graduate — Meeting Member Michael Benedetto and Senator Nathalia Fernandez, we have now diligently explored each attainable resolution on the metropolis and state stage to maintain Preston open. We examined funding choices via NYCEDC, metropolis and state sources and even engaged instantly with the New York Lawyer Basic’s Workplace and the Charities Bureau to assist navigate potential paths ahead towards independence for the varsity.
The Bally’s Basis proposal represented an optimum and sensible alternative to protect the tutorial legacy Preston Excessive College affords generations of younger girls within the Bronx, making the Sisters’ rejection of the supply all of the extra perplexing.
We stand alongside the over 10,000 petition signers—alumni, dad and mom, college students and neighborhood members — who nonetheless search solutions and transparency. Our neighborhood deserves readability about why this viable resolution was dismissed, and we proceed to advocate strongly for accountability and transparency from the Sisters of the Divine Compassion and Preston’s Board of Trustees.
