CPS mandates longer school day, Lane reacts

By Alexandria Martinez

CPS officials released their plans to extend the school day by an additional 90 minutes back in August. Lane students and teachers were left wondering if they would be affected by the, originally optional, longer school day proposal. On Oct. 7, Lane students and teachers were sent home with a letter announcing that CPS will adopt a longer day and school year in the year of 2012-2013.

This news did not settle well with many Lane students and teachers. Lane English teacher, Mr. Valderrama, was very upset upon hearing that high schools will be among the schools forced to extend their school day.

“The idea of a longer school day operates on the assumption that more school is better, and that if students were to stay in school for an additional 90 minutes, they will be less likely to get into trouble,” Valderrama said. “However, this policy fails to recognize that the 4,300 students Lane is comprised of as well as all students in selective enrollment schools are not the students that get into trouble at the end of the school day.”

Teachers like Valderrama and Mr. Dongas, also an English teacher, both disagreed with the statistics included in the letter supporting CPS CEO Jean-Claude Bizard’s decision to extend the school day.

The statistics cited pointed out the achievement gap for African American students and Latino students as a reason for extending the school day.

“This matter has now become patronizing and condescending to African Americans and Hispanics because CPS is singling them out as the reason everyone needs a longer school day,” Dongas said.

Valderrama agrees.

“[The letter] basically says that African Americans and Latinos are the slow ones and therefore all students need a longer school day,” Valderrama said. “If they are going to target these racial groups, perhaps they should consider that poverty is affecting them and that is a reason why they have an ‘achievement gap’ compared to other racial groups. But instead, this letter condemns them of being guilty of poverty.”

Dongas and Valderrama both attended a meeting between Karen Lewis, the Chicago Teachers Union President, and Brizard.

“I went to Brizard myself and told him that I have five kids in the system and that if he implements this, he will be forcing me to remove my kids from the CPS system because I will not have my kids in school until four,” Dongas said.

Alexandra Oleksiuk, Div. 368, is concerned that the extra 90 minutes will restrict her ability to have time for anything else outside of school.

“I’m on the Dance Team and practices after school run long. It already takes me like an hour to get home after school. I’m worried that between practices, homework, and the commute back home, I won’t get enough sleep or down time,” Oleksiuk said.

Mrs. Michaelson, French teacher, is also not in favor of an extra 90 minutes.

“Lane Tech already has an abundant amount of extra-curricular activities that keep students busy afterschool. So a longer school day is not really needed,” Michaelson said.

Unlike many of her peers, Alexis Catibog, Div. 278, likes the idea of a longer school day.

“Our school system can become more efficient and gain better test scores because of an extended school day,” Catibog said. “Regardless of the fact that many students despise the idea, it will benefit CPS.”

Lane English teacher, Ms. LaRoche, took time after receiving the letter in class to discuss opinions about the matter with her students.

“My students brought up the impracticalities of this situation,” LaRoche said. “One of my students said, ‘Doesn’t CPS realize that this new policy will just drop graduation rates because students will not want to be in school until four?’”

LaRoche disagrees with the statistics stated in the letter.

“The statistics in this letter are a blatant lie. Our schools do not have the shortest day in the school system. L.A. and New York have about the same school day length that we do,” LaRoche said. “Also, is it really a problem that only eight percent of 11th graders are not college ready? They have an entire year to be college ready. That’s why there’s a 12th grade.”

Teachers are also concerned about whether or not they will be paid for the extra classroom instruction they will be giving with this new policy.

“If this is a policy that all schools take part in, teachers need to be compensated for their extra time,” Michaelson said. “Work is work and if [teachers] are going to work extra hours, [they] need to be paid for them.”

Valderrama agrees.

“Too often [CPS] forgets that teachers are not social workers and disregard that we do not appreciate non-teachers telling us how to work,” Valderrama said. “However this matter affects students just as much as it affects teachers. If this policy is bothersome to Lane students, they really need to take action and protest. Sign petitions, whatever it takes to make CPS realize this is an awful idea, because if teachers are the only ones taking action, we look greedy.”

Dr. LoBosco clarified what will take place if the longer school day is implemented.

“The longer school day is a CPS decision and they dictate the rules Lane has to follow. Another class will probably not be added to the seven that students already have. Instead, minutes will be added to each one,” LoBosco said.

Lane used to abide by its own rules and regulations regarding matters like the grading scale and the longer school day, but that is no longer the case.

“Lane used to be what is considered an AMP School [Autonomously Management and Performance], which means that we were able to make our own decisions about things like this ‘Longer School Day Pioneer Program,’ but we are no longer an ‘Amp School’ as ‘AMP Schools’ no longer exist,” LoBosco said. “So this is something that we will have to do, if CPS implements it.”

In an email sent to CPS staff on Oct. 20, Brizard reported that “the Chicago Teachers Union recently asked the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB) to block CPS schools from extending their school day through the Longer School Day Pioneer Program.

Today, the Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of the Union’s filing. The IELRB now will have to make a request to the Attorney General on today’s decision, and then a circuit court judge will have to be petitioned to hear the case. The case will have to be won before that judge in order for the Pioneer Schools to roll back the time they’ve added. This could take several weeks.”