Savio Preparatory High School


St. Dominic Savio Preparatory High School, formerly St. Dominic Savio High School, was a Roman Catholic high school located in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The school was founded in 1958 and closed in 2007.

History

The school was founded as an all-boys school in 1958 by the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Catholic religious order. It was called St. Dominic Savio High School and served predominantly blue-collar Italian American and Irish American families in East Boston, Revere, Winthrop, and Chelsea.
Enrollment grew until the late 1970s, with peak at about 440 students. Those years saw a variety of new clubs and sports spring up. In 1970, alumnus, Paul Abbott, recalled a day when the student body voted on whether the school should add football or hockey as a new sport:
"It was 1970, the Bobby Orr era in Boston, so we chose hockey."

In the 80s, the school suffered from decreasing enrollment and rising costs, partially due to an aging campus and shrinking pool of low-salaried Salesians, leading to increasing dependence on more expensive lay teachers.
At the end of the 1992-1993 school year, as part of a continual process to cut back on services due to a decrease in the number of priests and brothers, the Salesians announced that the school would be closing, a revelation that caused an uproar in the community. The decline made it harder to keep up facilities, and an increase in costs in areas such as healthcare needed to take care of an aging priest population.
A group of alumni lead by Peter J Bagley, 75 stepped in and eventually the Salesians agreed to cede control of the school to the group, initially with no charge for property rental. In September 1993, St. Dominic Savio High was reincarnated as Savio Preparatory High School. Though there was no gap between the Salesians administering the school and the alumni taking over, the period of indecision that preceded the change saw many faculty members and students relocate to other schools. Savio became coeducational in an effort to increase enrollment.

New direction

Under the leadership of the Board and Fr. John Serio, S.D.B., from 1996-2002, Savio Prep's enrollment grew to 400 students. In 2005, however, the athletic director, James Doherty plead guilty to charges of indecent assault and three counts of molesting female students. Then, in 2006, the wrestling coach plead guilty to molesting two male students and hazing multiple others. These incidents caused enrollment to drop, and money to dry up. The building fell further into disrepair.

School closed

At the end of the 2006-2007 school year, the Salesian owners of the building did not renew the lease, citing the deterioration of the condition of the building and lack of funds to repair it. Concerned parents and alumni began meeting to discuss ways to keep the school open. The group called themselves "Save Our Savio," but could never muster enough funding or support to find the school a new location. It was clear that 2006-2007 had been the last St. Dominic Savio school year.
In 2008, it was revealed that the school administration rejected an offer to join the Christo Rey School Network, which would have saved the school financially.
The building now houses the Edward W. Brooke Charter School. An addition has been built on the site of the former Salesian residence.

Demographics

Heads of school

Notable alumni