Although the proposed county budget holds no increase for public schools, the Gloucester School Board appeared poised Tuesday to go forward with a request for almost $1.3 million more in local dollars for fiscal year 2016.

In a budget discussion during the board’s meeting at the T.C. Walker Education Center, school division superintendent Walter Clemons said much of the increase in local funds is required to open the new Page Middle School and to return Peasley Middle School to a sixth through eighth grades program.

County eighth graders have been temporarily attending classes in modular units at Gloucester High School since the former Page school was destroyed by a tornado in 2011. Sixth and seventh graders have been crowded into Peasley.

Clemons said the current estimated cost for opening Page, which includes staffing and operating expenses, is about $475,000. He said most of the remainder of the budget increase sought is to cover raises for all personnel, including an avera...