NBA legend Earl Monroe launches new Bronx school
The nation’s first specialty high
school for basketball, but not for
the playing of the game of the
game, celebrated its inaugural
freshman class of 110 boys and girls of
color with a ceremonial ribbon cutting;
it was announced on Oct. 6 by Dr. Kern
Mojica, the charter’s head of school.
The Earl Monroe New Renaissance
Basketball School opened its doors on
Aug. 30, marking the culmination of
an eight-year effort. The school was
founded by Peabody Award-winning
filmmaker Dan Klores, who was joined
by Monroe, the legendary NBA Hall
of Famer who helped to lead the New
York Knicks to their last championship
in 1972-73. NBA Commissioner Adam
Silver, National Basketball Players Association
Executive Director Michele
Roberts and Bronx Borough President
Ruben Diaz Jr., addressed the students
during the proceedings.
According to Monroe, “what is
so novel and creative about our mission,
which will ultimately house 440
girls and boys by their senior year, is
that in addition to all of the required
New York State core curriculum, we
are ‘marrying passion with opportunity.’
We are opening the doors for
high school children, all from diverse
households, so their dreams can become
real. There is no higher purpose
in life.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver
said, “with a revolutionary approach
to education, Dan Klores and Earl Monroe
are providing life-changing opportunities
for young people through basketball.
Their new school will give
students the resources they need to develop
life-long learning skills and pursue
careers related to the game.”
In addition to the core curriculum
and the specialty areas, the school is
centered on the following creative and
progressive services and programs:
No more than 20 students in a classroom.
An in-house Director of Mentoring,
in which every child is matched oneon
one with a mentor from the private
sector.
A fulltime in-house staff of trained
MSWs for families and students.
Adult literary classes two evenings
per week.
Year two, a full-time college and career
counselor.
Year three, a guaranteed internship/
job placement program for all juniors.
Two special needs full-time faculty
members.
The Ben Jobe Scholarship Fund, to
assist with college tuitions.
Fully wired classrooms.
A “Teacher-in-Residency” program,
in which we train new teachers
for a full year, beginning year two.
The school was the goal of Klores
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, O 50 CT. 15-21, 2021 BTR
when he founded an earlier not for
profi t eight years ago, the New Rens
Basketball Association, for inner city
kids throughout the tri-state area,
grades three through 11. “The RENS,”
headed by Andy Borman, who will
serve as the school’s athletic director,
has been a teaching tool for all of us,”
Klores said. “We have placed 99% of
our oldest kids in colleges, on scholarships,
tutored them one-on-one at their
homes, and we started the nation’s
fi rst orange emblem anti-gun violence
campaign as an educational, activists,
socio-political tool. Without these experiences
and lessons, there wouldn’t
be a school.”
The curriculum for the school was
designed by Dr. John Russell, the longtime
head of the Windward School,
and his associate, Betsy MacDermott-
Duffy, in conjunction with Mojica and
his staff. For the core curriculum components,
Russell and the school’s faculty
worked with New Visions, an educational
umbrella organization.
The school has received gifts totaling
$4.7 million from an impressive
group of founding donors including
Nike, Citibank, the Gates Foundation,
The Charter School Growth Fund,
the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the
Hobson Lucas Family Foundation, the
prominent media tycoon Bill Simmons
and numerous trustees and advisors.
The Earl Monroe New Renaissance
Basketball School will be housed in a
temporary site at Our Lady of the Assumption
Church at 1617 Parkview
Ave., in the Bronx.
Construction for its permanent
home, a 60,000-square-foot, fi ve-story
building in the Mott Haven section
is set to begin during the winter, and
open no later than August 2024.
-Bronx Times
Knicks legend Earl “The Pearl” Monroe at
the Oct. 6, 2021, ribbon-cutting ceremony
for The Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball
School. Photo courtesy Sean Brech