HONOLULU -- While thousands of state workers face furloughs to cut Hawaii's huge budget gap, the Board of Education is talking about the possibility of closing all of Hawaii's public schools on certain days to help come up with its designated cuts.

Gov. Linda Lingle cannot order furloughs in the Department of Education. Instead, she has asked for budget cuts equivalent to three furlough days a month.

School board officials said they might have close schools to furlough Hawaii's 13,000 public schoolteachers and other personnel as a way of making up the savings. The Department of Education has been ordered to make $278 million in savings.

If teachers are furloughed, schools might have to be closed for 13 days.

"The worst-case scenario is we will have to take some days away we just try to minimize it that's all," BOE Budget Chairwoman Janice Akuna said.

"I think our biggest concern is our students not having the contact time with our teachers. That's our biggest concern, shortchanging the students in education," Mililani Middle School Principal Valerie Kardash said.