Savio Preparatory High School

Savio Preparatory High School is an educational institution located in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

Its original incarnation was an all-boys school called Saint Dominic Savio High School, which was founded in 1958 by the Salesians of Don Bosco, an order of the Catholic Church. Savio built a solid reputation as it educated the young men from predominantly Italian-American families in East Boston, Revere, Winthrop and Chelsea. At its peak, about 440 students were enrolled.

In the early 1990s -- as part of a continual process to cut back on resources due to a decrease in the number of priests and brothers, which made it harder to staff facilities, and an increase in costs, such as the healthcare outlays needed to take care of an ageing population of religious personnel -- the Salesians announced that the school would be closing, a revelation that caused an uproar in the community.

A group of alumni stepped in and eventually the Salesians agreed to cede control of the school to the group, initially with no charge for rental of the property. In September, 1993, Savio Preparatory High School opened. 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. Since then Savio, which became co-ed in the mid-1990s, has been trying to regain the reputation it once had.