The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School building project took a significant step forward Wednesday on the path toward a new or substantially-rebuilt school, as the building committee named its top choices for owner’s project manager.

Generally known as an OPM, the owner’s project manager is a firm that represents a school district, municipality or other client in overseeing a construction project from its early planning stages all the way through completion. 

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which has accepted the high school into a selective program that could reimburse more than a third of project expenses, requires an OPM for any building endeavor expected to cost at least $1.5 million.

The company chosen for the high school will first be charged with selecting an architect and other professionals to conduct a feasibility study and come up with a range of potential solutions.

At an online meeting Wednesday, the school building committee voted in favor of CHA Consulting, a firm well acquainted with the Island from its ongoing work on the Tisbury and Chilmark schools, as well as earlier projects for public agencies on the Vineyard.

Town meeting voters in all six Island towns this spring approved paying their share of the estimated $2 million feasibility study, which is required by the MSBA program. If the state board backs the building committee’s OPM selection, the study will begin early in 2024, setting in motion hopes for an overhaul to the aging school building.

If the school district is unable to come to an agreement with CHA, the building committee has two runners-up: Vertex, with headquarters in Weymouth, and Colliers, a publicly-traded consulting company with a wide range of services.

The three finalists emerged from a field of five who applied for the job, according to Sam Hart, the high school administrator who has been shepherding the project’s progress through the rigorous state building program. 

Twenty-five consulting firms initially requested information, Mr. Hart said at Wednesday’s meeting.

A selection group of building committee members interviewed the five applicants over the past week, scoring them on a number of different measures to arrive at its final rankings.

“I think the suggestions of one, two and three are right on target . . . and we’re going to get a good OPM out of it,” said building committee member Warren Doty.

The building committee’s unanimous vote clears the way for the school district to begin negotiations with CHA, and runners-up as necessary. 

The MSBA board is expected to vote on the owner’s project manager contract at its Dec. 4 meeting in Boston, while the high school committee likely will take it up in January, Mr. Hart said.

Built in 1959, the regional high school’s internal systems that handle heating, moisture control and hot water are all reaching the end of their life.

The school was last updated in 1995. There have been attempts to get the project into the MSBA pipeline for years, with the district having at least six previous failed MSBA bids.