Earl Monroe's basketball-careers high school opens its $39.5 million home in the South Bronx

"Welcome home, guys," Earl Monroe told the crowd. The Knicks great's namesake charter high school has moved into a permanent building in the South Bronx: a five-story, 69,000-square-foot school that cost $39.5 million to build, according to USA Today, News 12 and ABC7. The school's website lists the address as 647 Elton Ave.

The Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball School is a tuition-free charter for grades 9 through 12. Its curriculum is built around basketball, but mostly the jobs off the court. Students can study broadcast media, sports psychology, law, nutrition, facilities management, arena entertainment, marketing, fashion and venture capital, USA Today reported. School leaders told ABC7 that students spend their first two years focused on reading, literacy and math before moving into the specialized courses.

A star-studded ribbon-cutting

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver delivered the keynote and ESPN's Mike Greenberg served as emcee, USA Today reported. Monroe, a 1973 NBA champion with the Knicks, was joined by former Knicks star and ex-Sen. Bill Bradley, Knicks alumni John Starks, Stephon Marbury, John Wallace and Charles Smith, and longtime Knicks fan Tracy Morgan. "You have that opportunity to be inspired," Silver told students. "As broadcasters, as lawyers, as commissioners, even," News 12 reported.

Rod Strickland, who grew up about a mile away in the Mitchel Houses, told News 12 the building offered resources he could only have dreamed of as a kid.

From a church in Pelham Bay

The school opened in 2021 in an old church in Pelham Bay, and its board was already working on a permanent home, News 12 reported. Founder Dan Klores, a filmmaker and public relations executive, told ABC7 that incoming freshmen in the early years read, on average, at a fourth-grade level, and that he hired seven literacy teachers to work with students one-on-one. Every graduate in the school's first two classes was accepted to college, according to News 12 and USA Today. Enrollment is now more than 400 students.

What's inside

• An 8,000-square-foot gym with a floating wood floor and six operable backstops
• A broadcast studio, 21 classrooms, four science labs and a 1,100-square-foot library
• An art studio, a dance room and a 1,700-square-foot weight room
• A 2,200-square-foot outdoor garden where students will grow produce with help from community retirees, Klores said

Klores told USA Today that mothers in the community will also be able to use the dance and music studios, the workout room and cooking classes, along with free child care. The school's website says the building is served by the Bx15 and Bx41 buses and by the 2 and 5 trains at 149 St-Grand Concourse.