The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to sit down with the Gloucester School Board tonight, and it looks as if members of both boards will have a lot to talk about.

Tonight’s meeting, which will begin at 7 o’clock in the Gloucester High School auditorium, will be the only opportunity school board members will have to discuss their board’s budget requests with supervisors prior to the county’s budget being adopted on April 24. There will be no opportunity for the public to comment during the meeting.

The school board requested a $4.2 million increase in local funds for its fiscal year 2013 budget. However, the county’s proposed budget provides only an additional $2 million transfer to the schools. That includes $400,000 for school capital projects, far short of the roughly $6 million the school board has requested.

To add to the mix, Gov. Bob McDonnell recently awarded $6 million of the commonwealth’s remaining allocation of Qualified School Construction Bonds for the purpose of rebuilding Page Middle School, which was severely damaged by a tornado on April 16, 2011.

The board of supervisors voted to borrow $18 million in late 2011 to the school board for the purpose of replacing Page Middle.

The board of supervisors, however, will ultimately decide whether it will add the $6 million to the $18 million already allocated.

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