The Gloucester County School Board had a tough time Tuesday night convincing the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors during their joint meeting in the Gloucester High School auditorium that building a new middle school on school property off of T.C. Walker Road was the best option.

Ben Kiser, Gloucester’s superintendent of schools, also announced that the insurance settlement for the heavily-damaged Page Middle School fell short about $800,000 of what he had expected.

The school board’s proposal, which was agreed upon by that group on Aug. 25, includes building a grade 6-9 middle school on the school system’s T.C. Walker Road site.

The proposed building will accommodate 800 middle school students and 500 ninth graders and comes with a $54,141,675 price tag. The existing high school will become a grade 10-12 facility under the proposal. Another item in this plan is improving the A wing at Gloucester High School and some other renovations there.

The plan also includes demolishing the current Page Middle School, except for its gym and auditorium, and building a new administrative and operations facility at that site. The existing gym and auditorium will be available for community use with renovations to these spaces necessitated by tornado damage. Page suffered severe damage in the April 16 storm.

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