HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- For the last two years, the oldest school in Huntsville has sat for sale on Meridian Street, the grass and weeds taking over the revered white building that's on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some people may have forgotten about Lincoln School, built in 1929 for the Lincoln Mill workers, or just not seen it with all the construction along a closed-off Meridian Street.

The Huntsville school board closed Lincoln in the summer of 2010 after deciding it cost too much to teach about 150 students at the small, but high-performing school. Students were transferred to Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary.

Now the school is coming back to life.

On April 2, Lincoln Academy will open with 16 students from the Lincoln Mills Village area, two teachers, acting principal Wayne Jensen, curriculum director Susan Connor among others. The new academy will be a church school that seeks to provide a quality Christ-centered education to students zoned to public Title I schools, which are those schools that receive federal money to offset neighborhood poverty.

The goal will be to jump to 60 students from the Lincoln area for grades kindergarten through seventh by next fall. The academy would also add more teachers.

The entire budget will come from private sources, according to Tim Connor, a member of the Lincoln Village Preservation Group, and tuition will be provided for most of the students.

Huntsville City Schools sold the building to the non-profit Lincoln Village Preservation Group for $625,000 in November. The group closed on the building on Feb. 1. Wayne Parker, a candidate for political office and president of the group's board, signed for the purchase.

Since then, members of the Lincoln Village Preservation Group, church groups and even college students on spring break from colleges, such as Vanderbilt and Jackson State in Mississippi, have been working hard to get the school ready for opening day.

"It's an exciting time for us," said Connor said. "Everything has come together for us.

"If you went down there today you'd see it's a busy place. There's women down there with nail guns and paint brushes. We've been doing all kinds of stuff, moving furniture and cleaning up the landscaping."

Connor admits there's lots to do. Part of the roof leaks, the kitchen equipment was taken out and won't be used this spring, and the air conditioner/heater is old but works, he said.

Still, those repairs won't stop Lincoln Academy from opening in two weeks. That's a far cry from two years ago, when many were disappointed after the Huntsville school board abruptly closed its top school for raising test scores among students from poor families.

In 2008, the state had named Lincoln one of nine high-flying "Torchbearer" schools, the only one north of Birmingham recognized for high poverty and high performance.

In 2010, Lincoln was selected as one of six schools in the nation to receive the Panasonic School Change Award given for improvement in test scores.

"I detoured around so I could go past Lincoln yesterday, and all I could do was smile at the thought that there will be learning happening again in that wonderful building," said Carol English, a teacher at Monte Sano Elementary. "The Lincoln Village Ministry is such a blessing."

Even before the school purchase, the Lincoln Village Ministry/Preservation Group had a hand in raising the standards at Lincoln School with its food pantry, volunteering and cooperation with the HEAL clinics. The group worked with the last two principals, Christy Jensen and Wayne Jensen, and supported the faculty as tutors.

The school was an obvious tie-in with the Lincoln Village Preservation Group's mission 10 years ago to purchase and renovate the homes in Lincoln Village for lower-income owners. The group so far has 30 renovated homes and is currently working on more, Connor said.

"When we went into the school it was performing poorly, but through the efforts by a lot of people and a tremendous faculty, the school was turned around," Connor said.

With the help of dedicated staff and an army of church volunteers, Lincoln fifth-graders in 2009 posted higher average math scores than their counterparts at more affluent elementaries, including Hampton Cove, Whitesburg, and Mountain Gap.

You can imagine the group's and community's disappointment when Huntsville City Schools pulled the plug on Lincoln in 2010, citing cost issues and low enrollment. The Lincoln Village Preservation Group looked into purchasing the school then, but it wasn't to be.

"It didn't work out for us then. We didn't have the funds. It wasn't God's timing," Connor said. "All things work out for the best."

A new Huntsville City Schools superintendent, Dr. Casey Wardynsky, took over for Ann Roy Moore in 2011 and Connor sensed a new urgency to sell the property. He also sensed more cooperation, the city schools perhaps realizing Lincoln Academy wasn't a threat or competitor.

Huntsville City Schools board member Topper Birney, who was the only board member to vote against closing Lincoln in 2010, is happy to see the school revived.

"I cried, I really cried when Lincoln was closed," Birney said. "I probably gave the most impassioned speech I ever made to keep it open. Unfortunately, I didn't sway anybody at that time.

"I'm happy for the kids there. I know the Lincoln Village Ministries will do a wonderful job giving them the best possible education. The Lincoln Family is unlike any other school. Once you get in it, it's a true family. They help everybody."