Parent survey? Check. Staff questionnaire? Sure. Student input? Oops.

The proposed school calendar for 2012-2013 for Minneapolis Public Schools has left an important constituency feeling left out—students.

A proposed slicing of the traditional 10-day holiday break to seven days with an August start next school year is getting some student pushback. A petition originated by a group of Southwest High School students two weeks ago has attracted more than 600 signatures to date. Students plan to present it to the school board on Tuesday.

The district's calendar presentation to the board on Feb. 14 claimed students were among the interest groups consulted but gave no information about how that happened, despite spelling out the results of parent and staff surveys. The Star Tribune inquired of the district, but has yet to receive an answer.

Southwest student Nathan Carroll said the calendar presentation left him feeling broader input on the calendar was lacking. He said students are asking the board to delay the scheduled adoption of the calendar later this month in order to solicit more opinions. He noted that by the district's own admission just over 1 percent of parents completed its calendar survey. They mostly were parents of elementary students. The district also suggested in its own presentation that a survey of high school students would be an improvement.

The district created the backlash by students in part by making its calendar pitch long before it has reached an agreement with teachers on a new labor contract. That delay forced the board to delay its own vote. That's because the new calendar is based on teachers working a longer school year.

The district wants that longer year because it argues that Minneapolis has one of the metro area's shorter instructional years at 172 days and that students need about 35 more days to close the achievement gap. But the district's own proposal lengthens the year by a mere four days for some students and nine for those in lower-achieving schools. Carroll responded that studies about the impact of extending the school year are inconclusive.

Carroll said signatures collected to date are mostly from Southwest students, and represent about one-third of the school, but that some parent and staff signatures were obtained during school conferences. The petition is open to anyone via Facebook as well.

We'll update this blog if the district responds to a request for its reaction.