The regional high school library is on track to move into the 21st century after the high school committee approved funding a new library design plan during their meeting Monday evening.

The committee approved a line item transfer of $18,500 from residential care tuition to long-term maintenance for the design proposal, which is the first step towards overhauling the library space. A group of students, teachers, and administrators was formed in late 2013 to begin brainstorming how the library could be improved.

“I think everyone agreed the school library really needed to be updated, really needs to be brought into the 21st century,” library teacher Kevin McGrath said Monday.

Mr. McGrath joined the faculty last year and has since worked to re-envision the library as an information center, gathering space, and innovation laboratory. Over the past year Mr. McGrath has developed a program where students can come to work on personal projects during their free time. Other programs include student-led talks (“sort of TED talks,” Mr. McGrath said), and working to connect high schoolers with universities.

“We’re trying to put students in the position of teaching others,” Mr. McGrath said.

“This is extraordinarily exciting,” school committee member Robert Lionette said. “There’s so much potential in that space.”

Mr. McGrath asked students to try their hands at redesigning the room with specialized software (one proposal included a treadmill and bean bags), and recruited the architectural design classes to sketch plans as well. The official design plan will come from a professional architecture firm.

School finance manager Mark Friedman said that the library proposal would fit well with overall capital planning for the school.

In other business, Jamie Vanderhoop of the Martha’s Vineyard Youth Task Force encouraged members of the community to attend a presentation by psychotherapist Lynn Lyons on March 10. Ms. Lyons will be holding workshops with teachers, students, and guidance counselors throughout the day regarding anxiety and coping strategies, and will give a public presentation at 6 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center.

Guidance director Michael McCarthy spoke about the high school’s low dropout rate, which was 1.2 percent last year.

“It’s a collaborative effort through the whole high school to keep kids engaged,” he said. “We’re all things to all students.” He cited the addition of a tutoring program that helps students who are out of class for medical reasons from falling behind in coursework.

“One of the most important things in keeping dropout rates low is to keep the kids from getting behind,” Mr. McCarthy said. “They get discouraged, they have a hard time seeing getting to the end.”

The committee welcomed new student members Lee Hayman and Iris Albert, who are both juniors at the high school. They also accepted several donations and grants from the community, including a grant from the Sound Foundation to fund a pilot yoga program in the high school’s physical education department.

The group accepted “with extreme regret,” as superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss observed, a letter of retirement from longtime IT director Woody Filley. Mr. Filley will retire on June 30.

“Oh, that’s so sad,” Lee Hayman said.