Rice High School, home to New York City boys basketball powerhouse, closing its doors for good

The rumors of Rice High School closing were not exaggerated this time around.

The tiny, private, Roman-Catholic school in Harlem that produced such basketball stars as Kemba Walker and Felipe Lopez and had a shoe from Nike named after it is shuttering its doors at the end of the school year, a casualty of low enrollment and rising operating costs, the school’s Board of Trustees announced Monday.

Rice has already started the process of enrolling existing students in other high schools and will hold its final graduation ceremony on Friday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The students were informed of the school’s closing Monday at a general assembly. The school’s final baseball game could be Wednesday.

“It’s sad for me because I was supposed to stay all four years,” said junior Kenneth Lopez. “But now that’s changing.”

The school’s private donors, usually a reliable source of revenue, were not as forthcoming this year, according to a statement released by the Congregation of the Christian Brothers, which founded the school in 1938. Student enrollment had plummeted 44% since 2003, with the current student population at 218.

“Economic realities have forced this painful, difficult and emotional decision,” the statement read. “Rice High School has been operating at a cumulative budget deficit of millions of dollars for over a decade. The school hung on as long as it could to continue fulfilling its core mission of educating young men.”

UConn basketball star Kemba Walker, a Rice graduate, said he “can’t believe” the news.

“For a lot of us, it kept us out of trouble, it helped us grow,” Walker said. “A lot of us are successful now because of Rice. It changed me.”