It’s dark, cold and 7:05 a.m.

You’ve got an hour-long bus ride to get to school — and another to get home.

You’re tired.

You’re just four years old.

Sounds like a nightmare but, for kids of rural communities in the Kamloops-Thompson school district, this could be a reality because of potential school closures.

Last month, the district released a report in which up to six rural schools could be shut down to recoup money and reconfigure the district.

But, for families in Savona, closing the elementary school means busing their kids into Kamloops everyday.

Adrienne Teague refuses to do it.

The mother of three children — one heading into Grade 2, another starting kindergarten in the fall and her youngest just two years old — and other local parents have formed a committee to dispute shutting down the school that’s been in Savona since 1894.

“It’s a huge emotional issue for us,” Teague said, adding she and other families will pull their kids from the district and home school or hire tutors.

“I would definitely not send my four-year-old on a bus from seven in the morning to four in the afternoon — it’s just insane and the kids are the ones who are going to hugely suffer.”

Savona elementary is slated for closure in the 2010-2011 school year.

Since 1997, enrolment has dropped from 97 students to 66 this year and is projected to drop to 39 students by 2013.

If closed, the students would be bused to either Aberdeen or McGowan Park elementaries.

If closed, it would save the district about $100,000 a year.

The savings, Teague said, is “a drop in the hat” in the system funding.

She said more money could be saved consolidating Kamloops schools that aren’t meeting capacity levels and are in the same neighbourhoods.

“Shipping the kids a distance of 10 minutes would not only make a larger impact on the budget, but smaller impact on the children,” she said, noting closing schools is never a good thing.

“With Savona, this is it.

“This is our only school and, if they close it down, it would hugely impact our entire community.”

Trustee Diane Dosch, assigned to Savona elementary, has talked with parents and is concerned about the impact on the community.

“I’m having a hard time justifying putting the little kids on a bus for such a long period of time,” Dosch said.

“And, if you take a school out of a community, you might as well board up that town — it’s devastating to the community.”

Other rural elementary schools listed for possible closure are the Haldane annex in Chase, Vavenby, Heffley Creek, Pinantan and Westwold.

Teague and the group of parents from Savona will be speaking to the board of education on Monday, July 6, at the 7 p.m. meeting at the board office, 1383 Ninth Ave.

“We’re going to try and make our few voices as loud as possible and make them realize that people who live in rural communities live there for a reason — and that we need rural schools.”