Disney needs a fully funded school day, not just a longer one. The Proposed 7.5 hour school day is too long—and CPS is not providing money for additional resources. Many parents of Chicago Public Schools students believe that a longer school day would be beneficial to their children. But the 7.5-hour school day proposed by CPS has not been shown to improve results. Nor is it funded. Today, some 160 schools have no libraries, and hundreds of schools lack full-time art and/or music teachers. Expanding the school day without enriching the curriculum will not improve education. * At Disney, CPS' proposed 7:50 am building opening time would leave just 10 minutes to get 1,650 students out of buses and cars and into the classroom—which is impossible. This will lead to lost instructional time. * The proposed CPS schedule requires a 45-minute duty free lunch as well as a 1-hour prep or planning session per day for teachers. But since CPS has no funds to hire school aides, Disney administrators, floor directors and others may have to serve as lunchroom monitors, a waste of school resources. * With proposed CPS budget cuts, many of the programs that Disney provides--such as art, music and access to computers--are at risk. Reducing the curriculum while lengthening the school day will lower the quality of our children's education, not improve it. * Special education students and others with Individual Education Programs (IEPs) will be adversely affected by greater stress in a longer day and the requirement to rewrite IEPs to fit the new schedule. What's more, according to the National Center for Time and Learning, extended time made no difference in either language arts or math performance in five of the seven grade levels studied. And in the 10 biggest city school districts, adding time to the school year did not improve graduation rates. Finally, a 7.5-hour school day is simply too much for children, especially in the primary grades. There will be much less time for homework, sports and after-school programs, as well as family and friends. Bedtimes will be later, with an adverse impact on health and academic performance. We demand that CPS not extend the school day to 7.5 hours. We ask CPS to explore a reasonable increase in the school day with input from teachers and parents. In fact, the Chicago Teachers Union has proposed 65 minutes of additional instruction time in a school day that "includes a comprehensive, rich curriculum that includes art, music, physical education, science, world languages and civics; where students learn in safe, nurturing environments that include small class sizes, libraries, cafeterias, air-conditioning, heating, technology and with qualified teachers and the appropriate support staff." Please sign our petition to tell CPS that Disney parents want a fully funded better school day, not a 7.5-hour day with fewer resources. Disney Parents for a Better School Day DisneyParentsAgainst7.5@gmail.com