NEW YORK – A new chapter in basketball education for New York City high school students began this week, as the Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School held its official ribbon-cutting ceremony to showcase its new state-of-the-art facilities. The Earl Monroe School, located in the South Bronx, is the nation’s only charter high school whose curriculum focuses not on playing basketball but on careers beyond the court. The ceremony drew heavy hitters from the sports and entertainment worlds, with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver delivering the keynote address and ESPN’s Mike Greenberg serving as the MC. The school’s namesake, Earl Monroe, along with former U.S. Senator and New York Knicks legend Bill Bradley, other Knicks alumni, including John
Starks, Stephon Marbury, John Wallace, and Charles Smith, and superfan Tracy Morgan, also attended.
'A ball and a book can change the world'
The school’s motto says it all, and the education students receive has changed their lives. In 2022, the school’s first class of 9th graders read at a 4th-grade level. By 2025, when those same students graduated, every student who received a diploma had been accepted to at least one college or university. The feat repeated itself in the next graduation class, with a 100% college acceptance rate. The school's location is intentional, with the new 69,000-square-foot, five-story building situated there. The school previously operated in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, but the new building, which cost $39.5 million to construct, serves 440 students in grades 9-12. The school is co-ed, and tuition is free upon acceptance. Students receive not only a classroom education but also real-world skills they can apply to higher education and, if they choose, meaningful employment. The South Bronx is the poorest congressional district in the United States, with a median household income of $44,103 and almost 31% of residents living below the poverty line. “Building the single poorest congressional district in America, because I believe our presence and our future success can inspire. The building of more schools can inspire the building of retail, residential, and commercial real estate. Yep, because the average income in the district is $18,000,” Dan Klores, the school’s founder and chairman emeritus, said to USA TODAY Sports. “You know, we’re responsible for the safety and well-being of these kids and their families. This is a rough neighborhood, man.”
Klores, a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who started an AAU club in 2011 and the New Renaissance Basketball Association (RENS), and the founder of DKC, a public relations and crisis management firm, said that can change the neighborhood's outlook and, by extension, the students' outlook. Klores says he was shocked at the students’ reading level, saying that for whatever reason, they were “children of neglect.” The new school features an 8,000-square-foot gymnasium with DIN-certified floating wood flooring and full sound. The school includes a 22-foot-high ceiling, six operable backstops, a 1,100-square-foot library, a broadcast studio, 21 standard classrooms, four science labs with a dedicated prep room, two literary classrooms, one 725-square-foot art studio, a dance room, and a 1,700-square-foot weight training room.
The school also offers a science class named after New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, focusing on science and health topics such as nutrition, rehabilitation, and wellness, as well as a physical therapy class, a broadcasting class, and a school newspaper named after two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Dwyer. The curriculum includes courses in broadcast media, sports psychology, law, nutrition, facilities management, arena entertainment, marketing, fashion, and venture capital. “You know, it's a good feeling that my family has this, and it's a great opportunity for folks to know that I'm still around,” the 81-year-old Monroe told USA TODAY Sports. “The most important thing is that these kids that are going to be going to the school are going to be able to be exposed to things that they might not never have been able to be exposed to.”Monroe has also been a strong advocate for education, from his time at Winston-Salem State University to his involvement in the Crown Heights Youth Collective during the 1970s. “We older people have always strived for the value of education. We realize the fact that there was nothing that we could really do without education. And today it's changed,” Monroe said. “There are so many other things that kids can get hooked on and become successful with that we weren't able to do.” Even though the doors are open at the school, Klores says they are not even close to being done with providing for the community. "Mothers in the community get to enjoy our dance studio, our music studio, our workout room, our cooking classes, and free childcare. We will take care of the children," Klores said. "We built a 2,200-square-foot outdoor garden. We have four retirees from the community coming in, and they’re going to work with the kids to teach them to grow their own vegetables and fruits. Those vegetables and fruits will be delivered to our dining room because what’s one of the ecosystem professions? Nutrition. What’s another one? Food services. We are also going to give them away for free in the community."
Pearls of wisdom
Monroe, a 1973 NBA champion with the Knicks and a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, said he got most of his education from his college coach, Clarence "Big House" Gaines.Monroe, who was nicknamed “The Pearl” during his playing days, said Gaines, a fellow Basketball Hall of Famer, used to tell him, “Opportunity at every door doth knock, but it has never been known to pick a lock.”“The Pearl” has taken that wisdom and applied it to every aspect of his life, especially when it comes to the students at his school. “It's the first school of its kind, and hopefully other folks will be able to mimic this in some ways, in their own ways. But this school here, because it is much different from other schools, is going to set its own pace and be its own model. Yeah, I'll always be known for basketball and whatnot, but at the same time, you know, education in itself will be such an important thing for kids that won't have the opportunities to.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NYC charter school named for Earl Monroe opens state-of-the-art building
