CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- Parents, students and teachers are expected to pack a Broward school board meeting Tuesday afternoon as board members vote on whether to lay off 395 teachers.

Meanwhile, parents and students are stepping up their fight against the Broward County Public Schools' decision to lay off the teachers, including a beloved band director from Sawgrass Springs Middle School.

Broward County Schools Superintendent James Notter said he feels for the teachers he is laying off, but a combination of budget cuts and fewer students mandate the layoffs.

"I am deeply, deeply sorry for having to get to this point in this state where I have no other choice but to lay off teachers," Notter said.

"If they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater, then they need to re-evaluate how they let go of teachers in the district," said parent Cheryl De Gol.

Parents from Sawgrass Springs Middle School were upset that band director Ron Helm, a teacher who has been at the school for 10 years, was told he was being let go.

"Mr. Helm's motto is, 'Music for life,' and I am seeing the seeds of that in my kid and don't want that extinguished," said parent Theda Okona.

"I came to this country 15 years ago because in America if you are good you are rewarded, and here we have a teacher that is one of the best, if not the best," said parent Yossi Har-nov. "The amount of extracurricular activity he gives the kids is immeasurable, and he is going to be thrown out?"

Parents said Helm was going to be replaced by a teacher from another school whose music program is being dropped. Helms' students made signs to display at Tuesday night's school board meeting in the hope of saving his job.

However, on Tuesday afternoon, Local 10's Michael Putney learned that Helm's job already has been saved, and he will return to teach in the fall.

Helm's students and their parents are not the only ones who are upset about the teacher layoffs. On Saturday, more than 100 parents and students attended a rally at Western High School, protesting the lost jobs.

Many said the arts have been hardest hit by the cuts, but officials said they are doing the best they can.

"What we have put out there is you must have either an art or a music, so that we are trying to do everything we can in these horrific economic times to maintain the arts in every school," Notter said.