ROSSVILLE – Reactivating Rossville-Alvin High School could cost an estimated $800,000 to $900,000, and those are conservative figures, an Eastern Illinois University professor said.

While the price tag is a critical factor when weighing the decision to reactivate, "the bottom line is what's best for students," Nick Osborne stressed.

For the past few weeks, Osborne and John Dively, also an EIU professor, have been preparing a feasibility study on reactivating the high school, which district residents will vote on in the April 5 election. The two presented their preliminary findings to school board members, administrators and a handful of residents at a special study session on Saturday.

The school board plans to hold two meetings before the election to let the consultants present the information to the public. Dates have not been set.

Osborne looked at the practicality and feasibility of reactivation by reviewing enrollment history and projections, Vermilion County population trends, transportation costs and the district's finances. He also looked at the facility, though he admitted it was not an in-depth review.

Osborne said K-12 enrollment has been fairly stable the last eight years and projected it would remain so the next eight, "especially in primary and intermediate grades." He projected high school enrollment would decrease slightly between 2012 and 2015, increase the next two years, then stabilize in 2018.

Osborne also pointed out that the county's population has been declining. But "in reality, folks, it's still a big guess," he said of future enrollment, adding there are too many variables such as a plant closing or opening.

As for finances, Osborne said the district's education fund has improved over the last five years.

"That's good fiscal management," he said, commending the board.

But he added the district must weigh the cost of sending high school students to Bismarck-Henning and Hoopeston Area high schools with the cost of reopening their high school, which was closed in 2006. Currently, 62 students attend Bismarck-Henning, and 54 students attend Hoopeston, according to officials from those two districts. The Rossville-Alvin district pays each district $6,935 in tuition for each student attending their school.

The major expenses: staff salaries and benefits, technology, textbooks and academic supplies, extra-curricular costs, and transportation, which Osborne said probably won't be affected much since the district already buses high-schoolers to the neighboring towns. Another major cost will be not only cleaning the building, which largely has been vacant since the deactivation, and bringing it up to code, but also equipping it for a 21st Century classroom.

Dively looked at curriculum and extracurricular activities, including what the high school offered before it closed, what it would have to offer to prepare students to get into the University of Illinois and other state universities and what Bismarck-Henning and Hoopeston Area high schools offer.

In the 2004-05 school year, Rossville-Alvin High School offered 57 course sections, including one honors English course and no instrumental or music courses, Dively said. He said under current Illinois graduation requirements, schools must offer four years of language arts and physical education, two years of intense writing courses, three years of math, two years of science and social studies and a year of art, music, foreign language or vocational education.

"You could do it at or slightly below what you had before, but no one wants that. The standard you have is much higher than this," Dively said.

He said Bismarck-Henning High School currently has about 31 full-time teachers teaching 196 course sections, while Hoopeston Area has nearly 46 teaching 190 sections.

Dively also reviewed University of Illinois admission standards, which require four years of English, 3 to 3 years of math and two years of social studies, science and foreign language but recommend four years of all of them. He pointed out they also require a high ACT or SAT score and a high class ranking.

"Not everyone will go to college," he said. "But students coming out of a reactivated Rossville-Alvin High School should at least have the opportunity to take the courses that will get them into the UI."

School board President Darren Duncan disputed some of the consultants' numbers, including those for high school enrollment. He hopes school officials can track down more accurate figures before the public meetings.

Others in attendance said they had hoped to have more specific cost estimates and enrollment numbers as well as what type of academic and extracurricular programs the board would provide before they have to vote on reactivation.

"It makes it tough," said Robert Danner, who graduated from Rossville-Alvin in 1998 and now has a preschooler in the district. "I was for it (reactivation). But it has to be practical."

Karen Kochell, a 1970 graduate and second-grade teacher at Rossville-Alvin Grade School, said she initially favored the idea, too.

"In my heart, it's hard to make that decision right now," she said. "I don't know if we can provide the level of education they'll need now."

If the ballot question is approved, the board would have the authority to reopen the school. Members have said they wouldn't do so unless it was financially feasible and the school could deliver a quality education.