During a brief Zoom meeting Thursday night, the School Committee voted to sponsor a warrant article for an adaptive playground to be located at Marathon School.

With its current wording, the article would ask the town to “vote to raise and appropriate, transfer from available funds, borrow, appropriate from excess bond premiums or otherwise provide a sum or sums of money” to fund the project.

No dollar amount is attached to the article, which would be voted on at May’s Annual Town Meeting. Previously, the amount cited for the project was $1.2 million.

The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) had approved $300,000 last year toward the project. Prior to that, it had allocated $100,000 for preliminary designs.

However, the Capital Improvement Committee (CIC) decided not to put the item on its capital plan list, which then would “typically” go to the town manager for placement on the warrant, said Susan Rothermich, assistant superintendent for finance and operations.

She said that following a meeting of the Select Board, Appropriation Committee and CPC on Jan. 21, it was brought up that anyone could sponsor an article.

The School Committee scheduled the special meeting on Thursday to submit the article before the warrant closes on Feb. 3.

School Committee chair Nancy Cavanaugh said that on Feb. 10, the CIC would be reviewing CPC recommendations for funding and, at that time, the district would get news on the fate of the previously approved $300,000.

CPC members had suggested suspension of those funds if the project had no possibility of moving forward.

If the CPC’s request is approved, the article would seek the balance “to put it across the finish line,” Cavanaugh said, and identify a funding source to do so.

Schedule changes made for superintendent search

In other business, Cavanaugh reported that New England School Development Council (NESDEC), the consultant advising on the superintendent’s search, recommended starting the screening process sooner so that a decision can be pushed ahead to earlier in the spring.

The School Committee’s vote to select a superintendent would be changed to April 15 “to get ahead of other districts that may also be searching for candidates,” Cavanaugh said of the rationale.

The NESDEC consultant, she said, “feels confident this is a viable timeline.”

Members Susan Stephenson and Kyla McSweeney will be the School Committee representatives for the screening committee.

Vice chair Jamie Wronka and member Chris Masters will select who will serve on the screening committee.

Meanwhile, letters have been sent out to parents inviting them to get involved with focus groups, according to the chair.

Superintendent Carol Cavanaugh is retiring on June 30. The expected start date for the new administrator is July 1.