Students at Dwyer Middle School have knocked on doors, designed fliers and canvassed their Huntington Beach neighborhood -- and they've even sacrificed 30 precious minutes of sleep on school days to protest solar panels planned for the front lawn of the school.

Thirteen-year-old Katie Cason is one of the students. For the last week, she's been protesting in the mornings before class by holding signs, urging drivers to honk horns, and cheering. She said the panels are infringing on a popular grassy area used for socializing.

"It won't be the same at all," she said Thursday morning before class. Cason and a group of students and parents will also be protesting outside the school at 1:30 Thursday, a culmination of months of complaints. Though the students plan to protest at the school, if they are told to leave, they will move to Lake Park, where attorney Gloria Allred is scheduled to hold a news conference.

Parents say they were not properly informed of an $8-million district plan to install solar panels on the front lawn of the middle school. Feasibility studies began in June 2008, but various parents say they didn't know about the panels until October 2010. A contract with Chevron Energy Solutions was signed in April 2010 and includes four other schools.

The district superintendent, Kathy Kessler, acknowledged a breakdown in communication at Dwyer, but she said the school board has weighed all options. The panels are expected to save the district about $75,000 in energy costs annually. Construction costs are to be offset by rebates, savings and other incentives.