Parents will be stuck arranging for child care alternatives if the Hawaii State Teachers Association today ratifies a tentative contract settlement, which calls for 17 furlough days on Fridays.

Furloughs would start on Oct. 23 and continue through May 14, according to a letter sent to teachers yesterday.

On those days, schools will close and parents will be forced to find child care or adjust their work schedules so they can supervise their children, education officials said.

"How can you do this to our children?" asked Paul Bernstein of 'Aina Haina, who has two children in the public school system, one at 'Aina Haina Elementary and another at Niu Valley Middle School. "Children often get shortchanged, and I feel like, here we go again."

Pay cuts without furloughs would have prevented schoolchildren from losing classroom time, Bernstein said.

The HSTA sent a full schedule of the 17 furlough days, which affect the vast majority of the union's 13,000 members who are on 10-month contracts, to teachers yesterday. Teachers who work year-round will have 21 furlough days.

DOE spokeswoman Sandy Goya said the public school system will send the new calendar if it is adopted by the union membership.

"We know parents are waiting to find out what the furlough days are so they can look into childcare options. ... We appreciate everyone's patience during these challenging times," Goya said.

Furloughs represent only a portion of a plan to address the $227 million in budget cuts required by Gov. Linda Lingle. The governor has been slashing budgets of all departments to keep up with a drop in tax revenue because of the stalled economy.

Education officials were unable to specify how much the new contract would save the DOE, but according to the state Board of Education's approved budget plan, potential labor savings should account for $117 million. The remainder of the cuts should be accounted for in program cuts and a reduction to school-level funding, known as the "Weighted Student Formula," by about $35 per student, according to the plan.

School principals say they are shuffling their schedules for programs and events that will be affected by the furlough days.

SPORTS EXEMPTION

Athletic directors discussed having O'ahu Interscholastic Association executive director Dwight Toyama request an exemption for sporting events on Fridays — one of the busiest days of the week for games and tournaments, said Mililani High School athletic director Glenn Nitta.

Many coaches and event staff are HSTA members, and a vast majority of the football games — which bring in the most fans and revenue — are held on Fridays.

Charlotte Unni, principal of Ala Wai Elementary School, said she is more concerned about what the days lost will mean for academic achievement. The school is likely to use extended learning opportunities, including after school tutoring, to make up for the lost time.

"It's a nightmare, but we have to roll with the punches," she said. "We're waiting on instructions on how to mitigate the learning loss."

At Jefferson Elementary School, parents said they aren't sure how they will deal with the furloughs.

Alma De Leon of Waikiki, whose son is in fourth-grade at Jefferson, said she's concerned about what this may mean for his learning.

"It's an inconvenience for the parents and not good for the kids' education. The state should not be doing this," she said.

Julia Rogers has four children in public school, including two kids at Jefferson and two older kids at Kaimuki High School. Rogers and her family recently moved to Hawai'i from Alaska.

"It's happening everywhere, in Alaska, too. It's not a good situation," she said.

Rogers and her husband run a cleaning business and said they will likely have to schedule their work around the furloughs.