New World School of the Arts is an extremely demanding school which currently releases its students at the end of the day at 3:45 pm. The school is located in Downtown Miami and does not zone students from any particular area so most students have a 45 minute to an hour commute to get to and from the school. This is especially amplified at the end of the day when we are released just as rush hour traffic starts, therefore we have over an hour some days of a travel home. Most of the time the majority of kids commutes home or to their next extracurricular activity right from school takes one hour. The students have to travel right to their extracurriculars because we get let out of school so late we have no time to go home for one second. Most extracurricular activities start at times that put the students of nwsa in a time crunch because most students get let out at an earlier time, 2:20pm. This is why us getting let out of school at 3:25pm would be a lot more convenient for us. We also have homework for our academic classes, as well as our arts classes we need to complete. Our academic classes hold us at an extremely high standard to complete the multitude of work they give us, and to pass their classes with preferably A’s. Most kids in New World take at least one AP class, and it gets extremely hard to keep our grades, sanity, well being, concentration, love for our art and school, etc., up when we have no time to rest, nor do homework because of the time we get out of school. Most of us have to cram for tests right before the class and stay up until around 2am doing school work, practicing for jurries, rehearsing pieces, finishing sculptures, and more. Then, we get up at the crack of dawn. Some students get up at 4:45am, and some get up at 6:00am. Whenever we get up, it is all very early. Then, we go to school and stay until 3:45pm, either from then on going to extracurriculars, staying at school to practice, and if you are lucky, actually going home at 3:45pm, but still, even if you are lucky, you get home at 5:00pm. These are extraordinarily long school days, especially for teenagers who are still developing and growing. Teachers in and outside of school expect us to be in top top shape in all of our classes, but we cannot do this when we have no time to rest and are falling asleep in classes because we are so exhausted and burnt out.. Our mental health declines when we have no time to rest, so letting us have 1hr 5min arts classes each which let us leave school at 3:25pm will help significantly. There is an extreme mental health epidemic in the United States currently, and with the prestigious reputation of NWSA, it would not look good on anybody for the school to be a huge contributor to that. Whether it comes to rehearsals, homework, scenes, dancing, practice, etc., us having 1 hour and 5 minutes of an arts block will not change how much we learn. The students at NWSA take their arts classes very seriously and participate the entire time as it is, but shortening the arts classes by only a few minutes will increase the intensity and our concentration, since we know our time is more limited. This benefits us because since we are more concentrated, we will learn more than we currently do. We also have no time whatsoever to spend with our families and friends because of this. We are only in high school and this is a crucial part of growing up. We are still kids and we need more free time to spend time with our family and friendsIn conclusion, every single student in the NWSA high school wants and would benefit highly from 1 hour and 5 minute art blocks each, letting us out at 3:25pm.