Portland's teachers are on strike, leaving some 45,000 students – and their parents – to wrestle with the changes that come with shuttered schools.

On one end of the strike, teachers voiced concerns over salaries that haven't kept pace with inflation, the stresses of larger class sizes and lack of resources, all elements driving a teacher exodus devastating school districts nationwide.

On the other, the district looks at the demands of the Portland Association of Teachers with spending concerns they argue could translate into staffing cuts in the future.

Parents want the ordeal sorted out.

PORTLAND TEACHER STRIKE CANCELS SCHOOL FOR SOME 45,000 STUDENTS

"I support the teachers. I want them 100% to get everything that they want, but it's not likely," one mother of two Portland Public Schools (PPS) high school students told Fox News Digital Tuesday. 

"It's, ‘We want world peace. We want clean water for everybody. We want a lot of things that are going to happen over time with planning and budgeting.’ And we just cannot meet their wish list 100% at this time. I just feel like they're holding out for something that's not possible."

While the parent said she is fortunate that both of her children are old enough to fend for themselves, and she doesn't have to dish out money for daycare as other parents might, the sudden routine change still poses a challenge.

Her son has a speech disorder which requires a personalized learning plan, she said. 

CALIFORNIA TEACHERS UNION PUSHING FOR HOMELESS ACCESS TO SCHOOL PARKING LOTS AMID LOOMING STRIKE

"He has a really difficult time getting comfortable," she explained. "And he was at a K-8 school, and he just graduated, and he's trying to transition to this whole new population of people that don't know him…

"Trying to find his way in this place has been difficult," she continued. "We were just getting into our routine, getting him and his teachers kind of acclimated together, so this disruption is just setting us back."

Another parent from the district told FOX 12 in Portland she is concerned about the amount of "unstructured free time" teenagers have thanks to the strike. 

"We’ve got these two adults that can’t solve a problem," she said. "That is an adult problem. It’s not a kid’s problem. But our kids are the ones that are paying the price."

SAN FRANCISCO TEACHER UNION LEADER THREATENS STRIKE IF PAY RAISES AREN'T MET AMID BUDGET WOES

A third parent who has two children in the district told the outlet that shutting down the schools is a "bad thing," adding, "We should not want schools to be shut down. We should want schools to be open."

He added that he has already purchased plane tickets to send his two children to spend time with their grandmother for a couple of weeks, an indicator that he speculates the strike won't end anytime soon.

The mother who spoke to Fox News Digital said the strike's future remains hazy since the district's teachers have never gone on strike before.

"It's really hard to tell [how long it could last]," she said. 

"They've always stayed at the table and continued bargaining, but I think they're trying to make a point and, unfortunately, it's our kids who are being the pawns in this, and they're the ones that are suffering."

Fox News Digital requested comment from the Portland Association of Teachers and Portland Public Schools, but has not received a response from either.

However, the PAT website explains why the organization believes a strike is necessary, noting the move is for "students."

"Our teachers have been negotiating with Portland Public Schools and no matter how hard they’ve advocated for their profession and our students - PPS is not budging!" the site reads, adding, "Striking is their last resort and they are doing this for us, for our community, and for their families! This is a short term inconvenience for a long term solution!"

PPS, meanwhile, has consistently posted on its website to inform parents of the daily progress regarding negotiations.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey set the execution date for an inmate who is now choosing to die by nitrogen hypoxia after surviving a lethal injection attempt last year.

In a letter to Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, Ivey said she is setting a thirty-hour time frame for the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith beginning at midnight on Jan. 25, 2024. 

The DOC will have until 6 a.m. to carry out the execution. The Alabama Supreme Court gave the state the go ahead last Thursday in a 6-2 decision after Attorney General Steve Marshall requested an execution warrant for Smith.

He was scheduled to be executed on Nov. 17, 2022, but it was called off when the executioners struggled to connect two intravenous lines to him for lethal injection.

ALABAMA CLEARED TO BECOME FIRST STATE TO EXECUTE INMATE WITH NITROGEN GAS: COURT

Smith's January execution will mark the first time a state uses the nitrogen hypoxia method, and legal dispute is expected to ramp up as the date draws near. Oklahoma and Mississippi are the only other states authorized to use nitrogen gas for an execution, but neither state has used the method yet.

Under the proposed method, the inmate would be deprived of oxygen and forced to breathe only nitrogen. While proponents of the new method have theorized that it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation.

His attorneys have argued against the method and asked the court to reject the execution request, describing it as "experimental."

"The state seeks to make Mr. Smith the test subject for the first ever attempted execution by an untested and only recently released protocol for executing condemned people by the novel method of nitrogen hypoxia," Smith’s attorneys wrote in a September court filing.

US SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH ALABAMA INMATE WHO SEEKS TO DIE BY NITROGEN HYPOXIA

Smith was sentenced to death for the 1988 murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Sennett, whose pastor husband sought to have her murdered in an effort to pay off debts with life insurance money. He was also involved in an extramarital affair.

"His scheme was to have his wife murdered, which would enable him—in one cowardly fell swoop—to escape both his financial obligations and his marital vows," Marshall said of Westside Church of Christ pastor Rev. Charles Sennett.

Smith and his friend John Parker, who was executed in 2010, were both paid $1,000 to carry out the plan. The two men ambushed her and punched, beat, bludgeoned and stabbed her to death with a six-inch knife. Marshall said she was stabbed eight times in the chest and twice in the neck.

Ivey concluded her letter to Hamm by saying she retains the authority to grant a reprieve or commutation before the execution is carried out, though she has "no current plans to grant clemency in this case."

Fox News Digital's Pilar Arias contributed to this report.