Town administrator James Hartnett is finalizing the terms of an RFP that will be sent out soon in hopes of guiding the town as it seeks to find a use for the old high school on Main Road.

Town officials have held dozens of meetings on the subject over the past several years, and have been stymied by the sheer enormity of the task — trying to find a financially feasible approach to the school’s future, keeping in mind that its ultimate fate will also impact the town’s deteriorating municipal buidlings, the  town hall and the town hall annex. The RFP will ask for proposals from planning groups and others to evaluate the old school and the town’s current municipal buildings, to “get a better final picture of what is involved in converting the school” to municipal office space, chairwoman Shana Teas said.

Though that is the preferred option of both select board members and the town’s Infrastructure Oversight Committe. But there are others, including demolishing the building and keeping the land, using it for light municipal use and making minimal improvements, demolishing it and building a new municipal complex on the site, and demolishing it and rehabilitating the town hall while building an addition there.

Though the town is leaning toward a plan that would move all municipal offices to the old school, Hartnett and selectman Richard Brewer said that for the purposes of the RFP, all other options should be included and studied:

“That’s a big part of the equation,” Brewer said. “You’ve got a lot of moving parts here. What is the most feasible approach? We don’t have that now.”

One thing most select board members said Monday would be a benefit is hiring a project manager to oversee the results of any resulting study:

“There is no consensus (from the town),” selectman Craig Dutra said. “We’re going to need the assistance of this type of consultant, and because of that, all of these (options) are in play for the time being. My impression is we’re not yet headed in a direction — we need to do something.”

Until a pointed study is completed and all numbers and ramifications are known, select board members said the project will not be able to start selling a plan to the public. Previous studies have shown that it could cost as much as $29 million to rehab the school for municipal use. But that’s just an estimate. And with voters passing on several debt exclusions over the past few years, selling the need is paramount, members said:

“You’re asking somebody to do what they haven’t been inclined to do lately,” Brewer said, referencing debt exclusion rejections this year and last. “If we have a (feasibility study) that says this makes sense and here’s why you want to do it, I think that’s important for the raising of money.”

Said Christopher Thrasher, chairman of the Infrastructure Oversight Committe:

“It’s imperative that any study that’s done looks at every town building. None of this exists in a vacuum. I hope that the select board will get moving on this so that there may be an opportunity for a ballot question somewhere in the near future.”

Though Hartnett presented them a draft RFP on Monday, select board members said it read well and apart from a few minor details to finalize, seemed ready to go.

Hartnett said the RFP will be posted publicly as soon as he is able.