HONOLULU -- Officials from the Department of Education, Board of Education and the governor's office met with the teachers union on Wednesday with hopes of striking a deal by Thursday.

The governor's office is urging the union to take the governor's offer to the teachers for a vote.

Parents outside the door of the Hawaii State Teachers Association headquarters greeted negotiators.

"Our goal is to support the negotiations and we just want to be kind of a cheering squad, and say thank you to all the parties for coming back to the table," parent Ann Davis said.

On the table is Gov. Linda Lingle's offer to end 27 furloughs days.

"We want to resolve this situation -- hopefully today or tomorrow," HSTA President Wil Okabe said.

The governor proposed buying back 12 furlough days with $50 million from the rainy-day fund and asked teachers to change 15 planning days into classroom days.

The union wants revisions.

"Teacher planning days are very essential for the teachers," Okabe said.

The union is also worried there would be only skeleton support staff on restored furlough days.

The schools superintendent arrived with the state's chief negotiator.

Lingle's policy advisor Linda Smith said the governor's offer stands.

"We would really like to have them take this out to a vote by their members. We would like teachers to be able to speak up and really voice their interest in coming back to work and getting their students back into class," Smith said.

Both sides have been under pressure to strike a deal soon to give lawmakers time to go back into special session by the middle of this month. That would give legislators time to approve the release of rainy day funds before they all go off on holiday vacations.

The parties plan to meet again on Thursday morning to resume talks. Representatives told KITV they are hopeful that a deal can be reached on Thursday.