In the rural taro farming community of Keanae in east Maui, Kehau Kimokeo wakes her two grade-school children at 5:30 a.m. to go to school 18 miles away in Hana.

The school bus arrives at 6:30 a.m. and the bumpy ride along dozens of winding hairpin turns takes about an hour to Hana Elementary School for her 6-year-old son Naehu and 7-year-old daughter 'Ale'a , then an hour ride back home at the end of the school day.

“;My son gets bus sick all the time. It's not fun,”; Kimokeo said. “;It's hard sometimes in the mornings 'cause they're tired.”;

The state Board of Education is scheduled on Thursday to decide whether to give a parents group until December to start a charter school at the Keanae School campus, which has not had students since 2005. Or the board could decide to formally close the school and transfer the property to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The board's Committee on Administrative Services has recommended closing the one-room schoolhouse. It would cost more than $1 million to re-open the school for an estimated 21 students and $161,800 annually to run it, according to a task force studying the possible closure.

Kimokeo said a parents group hopes to establish a nonprofit organization called Waianu o Haloa to develop a culture-based charter school serving kindergarten to fifth-grade, with a focus on education through experiences.

In a community where children help their families tend to taro patches and gather food from the mountains and sea, parents want an academic curriculum tied to rural Hawaiian life and they want more time with their children.

Parents say the long rides and school schedule are too difficult for young children, some of whom get motion sickness and sometimes miss morning breakfast at the school.

Since the Keanae School closed five years ago, residents have been either home-schooling their children or sending them to schools outside their community.

A task force report said the state Department of Education has been spending $32,300 annually to maintain the facilities.

But the report did not examine the cost to the department of operating a charter school on the campus.

A start-up Hawaii charter school received about $6,200 per student in state and federal funds for the 2009-2010 school year.

Kimokeo said enrollment could eventually go higher if the state begins to develop Hawaiian homestead lands in the area.

Supporters said it would also bring together the community.

“;Keanae would really like to keep their children in Keanae,”; said Robert Carroll, a former Maui County Councilman who has been heading an advisory task force to review the community's request.

“;The school is the heart of any community.”;