By Gia Vang

EUGENE, Ore. -- Parents of students in the 4J School District are still trying to wrap their heads around a proposal involving school closures and massive layoffs.

Hoards of parents showed up to a school board meeting Wednesday night to voice their concerns.

The district's controversial approach is designed to fill a $30 million budget shortfall.

But parents and students told board members there is too much at risk with their plan.

It wasn't a typical school night for students and parents from The Family School.

"Rushed down here, I didn't know about it, but I love where our kids go to school," said Jake Bernstein, parent.

The Family School, along with five others, is slated for closure under the district's proposed plan.

They're hoping to send a message that their school matters to board members.

"You can talk and talk, but you have to put a face to every number you're talking about," said Annette Liebhardt, parent.

The numbers show the district faces a $30 million budget shortfall.

One way to close that gap is to shut down and consolidate some schools to save them a little more than a million dollars and even more with staff and program cuts.

"I don't know if I'd be willing to put my daughter in a class size of 30 or bigger.  I wouldn't do it," said one concerned parent.

And neither would some school board members who say they think the proposals need more careful research.

"We are moving too fast right now to be able to do the quality of research and due diligence that I think we need to do," said Jim Torrey, school board member.

But there's no time, according to other board members.

"We don't have a year.  We've got right now $30 million that we have to come up with," said Alicia Hayes, school board member.

The proposal isn't final, and Superintendent George Russell says they are looking for alternative answers, but he says whatever they come up with will involve cuts from somewhere.

"If you take something out of the bucket, you're going to have to put something back to replace what you took out," Russell said.

A few of the cuts and changes proposed in the plan, besides closing or consolidating schools, is to eliminate 100 teachers, cut some administrative jobs, cut more school days as well as cutting a portion of athletics and extracurricular activities.