HONOLULU -- Parents and students have been frustrated over furlough Fridays all school year, but now many are even more upset over the Department of Education's latest posting on its Web site.

Some public schools will see more instructional days next year. However, the school schedule for next year, which was put up earlier this month, shows when students will be in class and also shows the exact same number of furlough days as this year.

It was another Board of Education meeting filled with frustrated parents.

"The Board of Education, Where have you been? What battles have you won? The people of Hawaii have not seen anyone fighting for the kids," parent Marguerite Butler Higa said. "Please do something."

"We get so much homework and school is not so fun because we don't get to go on field trips," Noelani Elementary School third-grader Raine Higa said.

While students spend an extra three weeks out of school, they have been busy crafting an important message for the BOE to see and understand how important instructional days are.

Pleas turned to anger at the meeting from parents over the upcoming school schedule just released that showed the same number of furlough days as this year.

"When we saw next year's schedule, we just said, 'Who is speaking for the children?' Because obviously no one cares about them," said Jo Curran, of Hawaii Education Matters.

"This sends a message to us that nothing has been done and we've braced ourselves for next year, so we will keep pushing to have something done," said Olga Lubecke, of Save Our Schools Hawaii.

If furloughs cannot be reduced, parents said they will have come up with a plan to lump them around holidays and breaks, so the weekly class schedule can return to normal.

"I have to tell you as a parent, come Monday it is incredibly difficult to get your child motivated to go back to school after a long weekend," parent Ann Davis said.

The BOE did not take any action on furlough Fridays, but members did approve about a half-dozen requests from schools to turn some planning days into teaching days for next year.

Those schools will change anywhere from two to four planning-and-development days back into classroom learning time. The Department of Education said more schools are working on their requests to switch days over as well.