Less than a month after receiving town meeting approval to increase borrowing for the Tisbury School project, town and school officials and contractors are crossing their fingers that the aftermath of Hurricane Ian won’t hold up the $82 million renovation and addition.

Before students and staff move to their brand-new modular classrooms and offices so that work can begin on the deteriorating 1929 school building, the campus will need high-voltage electrical service from Eversource — which may not have it installed in time.

“Part of that is due to Hurricane Ian, that took members of the Eversource team down to Florida to help folks there,” school committee chair Amy Houghton said at a committee meeting Tuesday afternoon. “We had hoped that the Eversource power would be in place . . . as soon as the next couple of weeks. That’s likely not going to happen.”

The move to the temporary school is still scheduled to begin the Monday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 21 — if the lights are on in time.

“A lot of it is incumbent on how Eversource cooperates with us. Unfortunately, that’s kind of a moving target,” said Harvey Eskenas of W.T. Rich, the firm contracted as construction manager at risk for the project.

“We’re trying to get them to get the primary [electrical service] in by the beginning of November,” said Mr. Eskenas.

An updated schedule for the move will be available by Nov. 4, Ms. Houghton said.

Once installed, the new primary electrical service will power both the temporary school over the next two years and the all-electric Tisbury School when it is completed.

For now, although the old school remains in use, the long-awaited renovation is beginning in earnest with the demolition of the attached gym over the next few weeks.

“Finally, we’re going to start doing some serious work there,” Mr. Eskenas told the committee.

Added decades ago to the original Tisbury School, the gym must now be detached — starting with its mechanical, electric and plumbing systems — and then torn down and cleared to bare ground, which should take until the end of November, Mr. Eskenas said.

“Our schedule is so tight right now we can’t wait until the kids are in the mods [modular classrooms] to start the demolition of the superstructure,” he said.

As the gym is dismantled, its materials will be separated by type and disposed of accordingly, Mr. Eskenas told the committee.

Brick and especially steel are recyclable, while wood goes to a landfill, he said.

“It doesn’t get dumped all into one dumpster and moved out,” Mr. Eskenas said.