Though the site for a new townwide elementary school in Ipswich appears to have been selected, the committee tasked with planning the 775-student facility has called a time out to reconsider.

At its most recent meeting, the School Building Committee decided to write a letter to the Board of Selectmen, the School Committee, and the Finance Committee, asking how to proceed after two of three sites — the Doyon School and Bialek Park, both on Linebrook Road — were taken off the table. That leaves only the Winthrop School on Central Street, which would either be rebuilt or renovated.

“I think most [on the committee] agree that there’s no purpose to go forward without instructions from the other committees about what they want to see, or what they want to do,’’ said Kevin Murphy, who has chaired the School Building Committee for two years. “We’ve produced data, we’ve produced information, and it’s not very clear that anybody’s actually read what was put together or that anybody took the process seriously.’’

Ipswich currently has two elementary schools, both more than 50 years old: the Winthrop and the Doyon. A proposal to rebuild or renovate the Winthrop has received initial approval from the Mass. School Building Authority, which could fund as much as 49 percent of the project.

According to the town’s timetable, Town Meeting in the spring, followed by a townwide vote, will consider a debt exclusion — a temporary property tax hike for the length of time it takes to pay off the debt — to fund Ipswich’s portion of the project.

But the disagreement between town leaders over the site has put that timetable, if not the entire project, in jeopardy.

Over the course of two years, Murphy said, the School Building Committee considered several private land parcels and five town-owned parcels before whittling the list to three: the 6.8-acre Winthrop site, the 17-acre Doyon site; and the 14-acre Bialek Park site, where some of the open space would be preserved.

Last May, the School Committee eliminated Doyon after a group of residents argued in favor of a walkable school downtown, like the Winthrop.

At that point, “Bialek was absolutely the preferred site, because of its size, and its location,’’ said School Committee chairman Carl Nylen, adding that as part of the project, the town would have improved some of the park facilities.

The Board of Selectmen felt differently, voting 3-2 in August to take Bialek out of consideration. Some neighbors of the park voiced concerns about issues relating to traffic and the nearby railroad crossing. Some of the selectmen had concerns as well.

“Right around that time, I was thinking, ‘Why are we going to spend time and money on Bialek when there are three of us who think that we want to preserve that as a park. We don’t want it to be a school, period,’’’ said Ed Rauscher, selectmen chairman. “Then all the questions about the railroad crossing and the traffic, and which part of the park we were going to preserve, all of those are immaterial if we want to keep the park as is.’’

That left the current Winthrop School site — the smallest of the three — as the lone option.

“Neither one of the sites should have been taken off until we were done doing the due diligence on the three sites to determine which one was the best, or potentially come to the conclusion that none of them were good,’’ Murphy said. “We took two sites off arbitrarily, based on emotion and not on fact, and that’s where we are now.’’

Barry Hopping, vice chairman of the School Building Committee and a School Committee member, said there hasn’t been universal support for any choice — from Doyon parents who want their kids to stay at Doyon to Bialek neighbors who don’t want a school — but “nobody denies that the schoolchildren need new facilities.’’

“You need the boards and the communities to compromise on what is suitable for a school site,’’ Murphy said. “As with anything, you can’t have everything. At the end of the day, a certain amount of give and take is needed between parties. If no one is willing to compromise, you’re not going to be successful.’’

David Rattigan can be reached at drattigan.globe@gmail.com.