Iona Preparatory School
Iona Preparatory School, or simply Iona Prep, is an independent, Roman Catholic, all-male, college-preparatory school located in the north end of New Rochelle, New York, in suburban Westchester County. It consists of the Upper School for Grades 9 through 12 and the Lower School (formerly Iona Grammar School) for kindergarten to grade 8. The primary and secondary schools are located on separate and nearby campuses less than a mile apart on Stratton Road. It is a privately-owned independent school without parochial affiliation and is located within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. The school was named for the Scottish island of Iona, the school was founded in 1916 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. Iona Prep is the brother school to The Ursuline School, a local Catholic girls' school, and shares a history with nearby Iona University, which was founded 24 years after the Prep in 1940. The Prep and college shared a common campus at 715 North Avenue until the Upper School completed the move in 1968 to its fifth and final home on a campus at 255 Wilmot Road. It includes the formerly separate K-8 Iona Grammar School, now the Iona Prep Lower School, which is located on a separate campus of . As of 2021, Iona Prep had an enrollment of 1,079 students – 901 in the Upper School and 182 in the Lower School. The Upper School maintains a student dress code that includes a dress shirt and tie with a blazer and dress slacks. History Founding Upon invitation by Judge Martin J. Keogh, Iona Prep was founded in 1916 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers as The Iona School. Br. Joseph Ignatius Doorley – an educator from County Carlow, Ireland – served as the school's first principal. The institution was established as a Catholic school operated by the Irish Christian Brothers (as they were then known) to educate elementary and secondary school students. The founder of the Order of Christian Brothers, Edmund Ignatius Rice, remained a prominent figure in the school's educational vision. The fledgling Iona School was located at the Stern Estate on Webster Avenue in New Rochelle and rented a facility to accommodate its class of 37 students. It derived its name from the small Scottish island of Iona, known for its Gaelic monasticism that dates back to the arrival in AD 563 of missionary and abbot St. Columba, an important individual in the Christian Brothers' guiding mission. After three years, the school had outgrown the rather modest capacity of the single building on the estate, and Iona moved to a new location. The land, which abuts the Beechmont section of New Rochelle and is bounded by North Avenue, was purchased by Br. Doorley from retired Presbyterian minister Rev. Thomas Hall for $85,000 in 1919. This land today is owned and operated by Iona College. Expansion The Iona School again moved to a new home in 1950, albeit this time the move was across its own campus. Its center became the building