NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Iona Preparatory School officially acquired Iona Grammar School today. Both schools were founded by the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, but the schools had been operating as separate educational institutions since the 1970s. The acquisition of Iona Grammar School by Iona Prep will bring the strength of the Prep’s academic, athletic and extracurricular programs to the Iona Grammar School and form the strongest Catholic educational institution for young men in the region.
“The purpose of the merger is threefold,” explained John Verni ’80, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Iona Prep. “First we need to strengthen Iona Grammar School’s academic programs so that students from the Grammar School will come prepared to handle the work at Iona Prep. Second, we need to maximize available field space in the area of our campus to accommodate our thriving athletic programs which have won recent championships in baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse and soccer, to name a few. And third, the purchase of the Iona Grammar School land from the Christian Brother Institute, Inc., the business arm of the congregation, allows Iona Prep to help secure the economic future of our founding order which has been under financial duress in recent years due to rising health care costs and an aging order. For all these reasons and others, it was the right thing to do at this time to insure the future success of Iona Prep.”
Iona Prep’s Board of Trustees, Board of Directors, and administrators from both schools worked diligently over the past year to complete the acquisition and plan for an orderly merger of the two institutions. Brother Thomas R. Leto, CFC, who has served as the President of Iona Prep for the past three years, will serve as the president of the merged school to be called the Iona Preparatory School. Also, the Board of Directors from each school will merge as one entity.
“Since I have arrived at Iona Preparatory School, I have always told our faculty, parents, alumni, and students that my goal was to make Iona Prep the finest Catholic school for young men in the Northeast. By extending the Iona Prep experience into the Grammar School, this takes us one step closer to that goal.” said Brother Leto. “As we look forward to our Centennial in 2016, the whole Iona Prep community can take pride in our tradition of developing our young men in mind, body and spirit so they can become the leaders of tomorrow”.