Chilmark voters will weigh in on the future of early childhood education in their town next week. A one-article special town meeting will be held Monday on whether to lease town land to the private nonprofit Chilmark Preschool for the purpose of constructing their own building.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. on Jan. 22 at the Chilmark Community Center, with a quorum set at 25 people. The preschool building group is also holding an information session at the Chilmark library at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, to discuss the project.

Since its inception in 2005, the preschool has operated in the town-owned Chilmark School, but enrollment at the kindergarten through fifth grade school has nearly doubled since 2008, leading to a space crunch.

At the town meeting in April 2023, voters approved the construction of a new preschool on town land, without specifing where it would be constructed.

The article on the warrant this time, Anne Mayhew said, will decide whether to authorize leasing a specific 3,000 square foot plot next to the Chilmark school’s playground to construct the building.

“We will have the opportunity to double capacity,” said Ms. Mayhew, a member of the preschool’s board.

Funding for the new school will come entirely from the nonprofit, Ms. Mayhew said, and the building will be donated to the town upon completion.

“We’ve been working very diligently and we have a very stringent time frame,” she said.

The preschool currently has an agreement to continue operating in the Chilmark School through the next school year, she said, and they have plans to finish construction of the new building by spring of 2025.

The group is working with architect Josh Gothard, who has developed preliminary plans for the project, but a builder has not been selected.

“There’s still a lot of details to be worked out,” Ms. Mayhew said. “We’re really excited to keep the project moving.”