The decision to build a new Tisbury elementary school on the site of the old school has been made, but rumbles of discontent persist about both the decision and the process that led to it.

Last month, the school building committee voted 11-5 to build a new three-story school at the same site spanning Spring and West William streets. The decision means the current brick school, built in 1929, will be demolished.

Town and school leaders have been working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority grant program since January 2016 to upgrade the school building. Long known for its academic excellence, the Tisbury School has not seen a major facility upgrade since the 1990s.

Last week the Tisbury selectmen signed a certificate of approval for the preferred schematic report for the school building project, a key step in the process.

But critics question the wisdom of demolishing the old school, among other things raising concerns about whether the project can pass muster with voters at town meeting next year. “There was a pretty good majority of people who wanted a renovation project,” said Ben Robinson, a member of the town planning. “For the school building committee to dismiss what the public was telling them and continue to develop this project, it seems like we’re going to waste a lot of money and then see it voted down.”

He also has been critical of the process, questioning the make up of the school building committee and whether it reflects the sentiments of townspeople. The school building committee has 17 voting members and was formed according to rules set out by the MSBA. Seven public forums have been held over the past year and two surveys were sent out. All the meetings were open to the public.

Melinda Loberg, a Tisbury selectman who sits on the school building committee and was in the minority that voted to renovate over building new at the site, acknowledged that the process under the MSBA has been frustrating for some.

“There’s no [public] vote until the end and that is just frustrating because you have to predict what the public is willing to support,” she said. “I think that it needs to be a very open dialogue with the community, the design of the school is pretty important to people, even people who don’t send kids there and have any interaction with the building . . . it’s the biggest building in town and a lot of people are very interested in what it will look like.”

She also openly worried that failing to design a project that appeals to the majority of town voters could put the town in a serious financial bind. Qualifying for the MSBA program means the town will be eligible for 41 per cent reimbursement of eligible costs on a project with an estimated $50 million price tag.

“We need to leverage our taxpayer money with state money,” Mrs. Loberg said. “We need to look for the solution that’s going to keep us in the [MSBA] program. We also need to get the best building and facility that will serve the education needs of the kids.”

Selectman and board chairman Larry Gomez, who also favored renovation and expansion, worried about the need to site the new building in a spot that is less than ideal.

The current school building sits atop a hill. Part of the draw behind building new was so students could continue going to school during construction without being housed in trailers. But there are concerns that the current building occupies the prime location on the site and building anywhere else will pose engineering and environmental challenges.

“When people built the building almost 100 years ago, they put it on the top of a hill, not in a hole,” Mr. Gomez said. “Those are the two issues I have, the location of the building and renovating the building. It’s a nice-looking building, it stood for 90 years, why can’t it stand for another 50 to 60 years?”

School building committee chairman Colleen McAndrews said she believes many of the concerns stem from misinformation about the process.

“We have not decided where the building will be on that site yet,” she said. “The MSBA process, a very set process, I think it’s frustrating for people. The only thing that has been decided is the actual site, and the type of building were going to have, and that’s new construction.”

She said keeping the old building up during construction is only an option.

“That’s definitely an option and we’re happy to have that as an option, but that’s all it is, an option,” she said.

Mrs. McAndrews said she expects the design process will answer many questions about the new construction. That begins after an MSBA board meeting set for August 23. Meanwhile, Mrs. McAndrews said despite the lack of unanimity in decision making, the school building committee has achieved what it set out to do.

“The task we were given was to find the most cost-effective design that would meet the education needs of the students and I feel like we did that,” she said. The committee plans to hold a meeting in the near future with town leaders, including the selectmen, planning board and finance director.