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 al...