An ambitious upgrade for playing fields at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, beginning with the track, was pitched to the regional high school district committee this week by a small group of parents.

At the school committee meeting Monday night David Wallis, Terry Donahue and Robert (Spike) Smith presented a three-phase plan to significantly upgrade outdoor sports facilities. The group has formed a nonprofit called MV @ Play to raise money for what they envision as a public-private partnership to improve playing facilities at the school. The group has hired consultants at Gale Associates to assist with the plan.

“Our Island doesn’t have enough safe fields to support our kids,” Mr. Wallis, who is president of MV @ Play, told the Gazette later by phone.

The group envisions a years-long, three-phase $12 million upgrade to the outdoor facilities at the high school. Phase one would focus on a $3.5 million upgrade to the outdoor track, which is in known to be in poor condition. A study commissioned by the high school last year concluded the track condition should be addressed immediately, while a full reconstruction of the track and fields would expand the use and flexibility of the venue. The school has received $283,000 in CPC funds for the project, which committee chairman Lisa Regan noted is not nearly enough.

The high school is also embarking on a study for badly needed upgrades in the building that have been put off for a number of years.

“This is an amazing opportunity, we have so many financial issues coming at us and being able to tackle something like this would not happen, it would be impossible,” school committee member Colleen McAndrews told the parent group. “You guys are willing to go out and ask for money from community to make something happen that would not happen even as part of a high school reconstruction process, because it’s a lot of money.”

Before the project can move forward, legal and technical issues must be addressed; the high school and nonprofit would need to enter into some kind of licensing arrangement that spells out responsibilities on both sides.

Committee member Robert Lionette also said public meetings will be imperative to air the details of the project.

“This entire project has been based on the phrase of community space — I will not vote on this until we can at some point include the larger community,” he said.

Pending those issues, the school committee voted to allow MV @ Play to put phase one of the project out to bid.