Chelsea Haggett used to play on Wiscasset Middle School’s playground. Now the Wiscasset School Committee member is helping plan its makeover in the months before the school changes from serving grades five through eight, to serving kindergarten through grade six and possibly a regional pre-K program.

The playground project is a community effort, with $16,000 in proposed school department funding and an unknown amount to come from fundraising. Kim Andersson of Partners in Education said she hopes to have a cost projection at the playground committee’s next meeting, April 28.

Current plans call for completing a first phase of work in time for the new school year. The phase will involve resurfacing the play space, taking out some pieces of play equipment and installing age-appropriate ones, Andersson said.

Linnea Andersson, 8, and brother David Andersson, 10, will attend the school in the next school year. Their mother wants the playground to be ready and suitable for them and all students to enjoy. She said the playground planning needs to continue to happen in a transparent way, so that people can feel comfortable with it as part of the move from Wiscasset Primary School.

At the playground on April 16, as Andersson’s children played nearby, she and Haggett expressed their hope that the playground will also serve as a place for families to come, outside the school day.

“I think it could really be an asset to the community,” Haggett said.

Andersson and Haggett recently organized a community meeting to brainstorm about the playground and find volunteers. Andersson described the meeting as a success.

“There was a lot of interest in natural play elements, slides, safety and security,” Andersson writes in an April 14 email to the Wiscasset Newspaper. Six people offered to serve on the committee, the email states.

Wiscasset Parks and Recreation Director Todd Souza has helped the committee to know where the school playground ends and the town’s nearby recreational fields start, according to the email.

The playground committee’s April 28 meeting is open to the public; it starts at 3 p.m. in the Wiscasset Middle School library, Andersson said.