The Oakland Press: Jalen Rose juggles sports, education — and thinks of being Detroit Mayor
January 26, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
By CAROL HOPKINS
carol.hopkins@oakpress.com; Twitter: @waterfordreport
Jalen Rose is no slouch.
Last Saturday he was in California calling the Long Beach State-Santa Barbara college basketball game for ESPN.
He watched Sunday’s big NFL conference games and then caught a redeye flight back to Detroit, arriving in town at 6 a.m. Monday.
The day was packed with meetings at his fledgling Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a Detroit charter high school that provides free tuition to students.
And now, following in the footsteps of one of his mentors, Dave Bing, he is considering a new gig.
“Maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed, ‘Mayor of Detroit’ might be a title I carry one day,” Rose, 38, said Tuesday.
A photo of Bing at the academy’s ribbon-cutting sits on a shelf in Rose’s office.
“I’ve known Jalen since birth,” said Bing, who played for the Detroit Pistons with Rose’s father, Jimmy Walker. “Not only was he an outstanding basketball player, but he’s an outstanding humanitarian who made it out of the ’hood, but never left.
“I support him wholeheartedly and wish him the best of luck,” Bing said, adding Rose has invested his own time and money in helping to improve the lives of those around him. “Those kids in his school are the recipients of his good nature.”
Rose didn’t elaborate about his political aspirations, but the idea of him being mayor doesn’t sound that far-fetched once you dig into his history.
A Detroit native, Rose was a star at an early age, an All-American basketball player from Southwestern High School, according to Rose’s website, www.jalenrose.com. At the University of Michigan he was part of the legendary “Fab Five,” where he and teammates Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson changed the sport on the court and off by wearing baggy uniform shorts, black socks and black shoes.
The only team in Final Four history to ever start five freshmen, they led the Wolverines to back-to-back NCAA Championship game appearances. In 1994, Rose was drafted in the first round by the Denver Nuggets. According to Rose’s website, his most memorable NBA moments during his 13-year career included winning the NBA’s “Most Improved Player” and “Player of the Week” awards in 2000 and “Eastern Conference Player of the Week” accolades in 2005. As a member of the Indiana Pacers, his team appeared in three straight Eastern Conference finals including a trip to the NBA Finals in 2000.
The 6-foot-8 Rose left the NBA for TV in 2001, becoming a reporter and on-air personality for Fox Sports Net’s famed “Best Damn Sports Show Period.”
A mass communications major at U of M who ultimately earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland University College, Rose is now an ESPN/ABC sports analyst.
In 2007 he started his own production and management company, and in 2011 served as executive producer on the memorable “The Fab Five,” ESPN’s highest rated documentary. He has two daughters who live in Georgia.
School open six months
But around this area, it’s the academy — a former elementary school in a neighborhood east of the Lodge Freeway and just south of 8 Mile in Detroit —that keeps him busy.
Right now the school has 120 ninth graders — 48 girls and 72 boys, including three students from Oakland County — who were chosen by lottery.
Rose plans to add another grade each year until the school has 480 students in ninth through twelfth grades.
Even with his frantic schedule, Rose says he has only missed one monthly board meeting since the academy opened its doors last September.
Rose, an Oakland County resident, raised $2 million to buy the school building and bring it up to code, and is working to raise another $5 million to expand the school so it can hold more students.
The school sits on a good-sized lot near a neighborhood. Inside, students work on laptops and attend school from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They will have a longer school year — 211 days.
“We’re trying to compete in an international global economy,” said Rose, noting children in Thailand and China attend school more than 230 days a year.
Only 6 percent of the students came to the academy ready for ninth grade math, teachers said. The majority are reading between a fifth and seventh grade level.
The academy keeps the student-to-teacher ratio in classes at 20-to-1. In math and English, it’s 10-to-1.
“They need that extra time and boost to help them catch up,” he said.
Ninth grader Brandon Lundy of Detroit — who wants one day to be a registered nurse, then a doctor — said he likes how staff “give you a chance. Some schools give you a grade and that’s it. Here you get a second chance. Some people learn at different paces. Teachers are really good at helping students.”
All the students wear blue blazers and white shirts. Boys wear ties.
“Uniforms are very important to create a culture where (students) can focus on learning, not on what kind of new gym shoes they have,” said Rose.
“You dress how you look, and the students look good.”
When administrators went out looking for teachers, Pam English, vice president of academics, said they wanted innovative instructors who would “think outside the box.”
Teaching, said Rose, means investing time, energy and caring.
If you are just coasting in the classroom, “kids will see right through it,” said Rose.
“It’s almost like being a coach. Some players need a kick in the butt and others need a pat on the back. It’s my job is to find which button to push with administrators and students.”
Barbara Smith, the academy’s school improvement director, said students earn As, Bs or “Incompletes.”
Smith and Rose shared how several students ran up to Rose this week showing off their report cards. Some of them had “Incompletes,” and Rose asked them what they were doing about it.
“They knew exactly what they had to do,” said Smith.
At the academy, they are not just being given a lower grade with no accountability.
“When charter kids get to college, that’s when many drop out because they look around and their confidence is low,” she said.
Jalen Rose Leadership students will have to do the work to get the higher grades, she said.
In March, students will take their first major tests to judge how they are doing.
“The goal is college,” said Rose.
Smith and Rose appear happy with the progress so far.
“The kids speak for themselves,” said Smith.
“I’m not Bill Gates”
Rose has to think for a minute if there is any photograph of him displayed at the school that bares his name.
“Yes, on the wall with the rest of the board members,” he said.
Rose sits at his desk in a small office. Over in a corner a cooler packed with bottled water hums.
Talking about his motivation for starting the school, he said, “I never wanted to be considered a dumb jock. In high school I made the honor roll, in college I made the dean’s list. I graduated from college.”
Rose speaks of wanting to give back to his hometown.
“Say Detroit when you’re out of town, unfortunately, and a lot of times the first thing that comes out of someone’s mouth, especially someone who has never been here, is negative,” he said.
“If we don’t educate our youth, how can we grow the fortunes of our great city?
“So many parents, educators, individuals are trying to turn around Detroit, I just want to be one of the people doing my part.”
Rose talks of people being able to send their children to great public and private schools.
“It all boils down to money,” he said.
“Adults know what I mean. If you have the means and responsibility, you move to a better school district.”
Besides keeping up on the academy’s operations, he spends much of his time raising money to keep the school going, he said.
“I have to build the brand,” he said, “using every resource to create donors, internships (for the students). I’m looking for mentors.”
Rose is dismayed that governments spend an average of $37,000 annually on prisoners but only $7,000 on students.
He praises his friends, former Detroit Piston Isiah Thomas, former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and Dave Bing, for helping raise money for the school.
He said Jeep and Chrysler have offered to provide $100,000 in scholarships.
“I’m not Bill Gates, I don’t have a blank check, this is all pro bono,” Rose said.
“We have lot of legwork we are doing,” he said, “trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
“I’m doing whatever I can to make this thing succeed.”
Contact Carol Hopkins at 248-745-4645 or carol.hopkins@oakpress.com. Follow her on Twitter @waterfordreport or on Facebook @OPcarolhopkins.
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