LeBron James pays basketball stardom forward with opening of public school in Akron
LeBron James on Monday opened a new public school in Akron called the I Promise School, giving bigger opportunities to a new generation of children and showing he hasn’t truly left Ohio behind.
He may be gone from the Cavaliers, but LeBron James will never leave Ohio behind.
His new I Promise school will be part of Akron Public Schools, and will additionally feature 240 third- and fourth-grade students before expanding to grades 1-8 by 2022. School district official Keith Liechty told USA Today the inaugural class of students was chosen from a pool of kids underperforming relative to those in their grade.
James was reportedly driven by his own experiences in the school district — both positive and negative (James missed much of his fourth-grade year) — and the importance of education over the course of his life. I Promise School is a short way down from James’ high school, St. Vincent-St. Mary, where he began to build his legacy.
I Promise School is a partnership between the Akron district and the LeBron James Family Foundation.
By opening the school, James is doing his part to educate children from his hometown and give them more opportunities than he had at a young age. He is paying his success forward.
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James famously returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014 to bring the city a championship. He succeeded in that incredible mission in 2016, when the Cavs won an incredible seven-game NBA Finals over the Golden State Warriors. Now, despite leaving Cleveland once again to play for the Lakers, James continues to make his community a central focus in his life.
Many of our greatest athletes do work in their community, but James’ prolific dedication to Akron has taken the idea to another level.