Tax-exempt, Low-Interest Financing Saves Iona Preparatory School Thousands of Dollars As Two New Rochelle Schools Merge

Arlington, Va. —Iona Preparatory School (Iona Prep) in New Rochelle, N.Y. is the first school to take advantage of low-interest loans offered to National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) member schools through the Catholic Education Capital Corporation (CECC).

The Christian Brothers-sponsored school financed a $9 million bond to purchase and renovate the nearby Iona Grammar School. The school, located about one-half mile from Iona Prep, formerly was separately owned and managed by the Christian Brothers Institute, Inc. Both schools were founded in 1916 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, more generally known as the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, and operated together as The Iona School for many years. They have operated as separate institutions in recent years.

With the acquisition, the two schools will merge and be known as Iona Preparatory School, the only K to 12 academy for boys in New York’s Westchester County. The school will be headed by Christian Brother Tomas R. Leto, who has been president of the high school for the past three years. The boards of directors from each school will merge as one single corporation. 

Today Iona Prep enrolls 780 boys in grades nine to 12. Iona Grammar School accommodates 200 boys in grades kindergarten through grade eight.

The low-interest loan provides a fixed-interest rate lower than that available through conventional financing, which means that Iona Prep will save between $90,000 and $180,000 per year in interest costs.

CECC financing is available to all NCEA members in any state. Many states make it difficult or expensive to complete tax-exempt financing for faith-based schools. CECC, which works under the auspices of the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority, is designed to eliminate hurdles and facilitate cost-effective solutions for construction and renovation loans.

For additional information on financing or refinancing construction or renovations, contact David Dudik.

Established in 1904, the NCEA is the largest private professional education organization in the world, representing 200,000 Catholic educators serving 7.6 million students in Catholic elementary and secondary schools, in religious education programs, in seminaries and in colleges and universities.