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With the school system set to get that amount more from the county than originally planned, county officials were considering possibly recouping the money by charging the school system $80 million to pay the debt on school construction bonds, according to sources in the meeting. Thus far, school officials seem cool to that idea.

Also unknown is whether officials will require county employees to help close the gap by taking unpaid furlough days or forgoing their incremental step increases.

Local leaders were continuing meetings Monday evening.

The county can appeal the state board's decision in Circuit Court. County leaders also could choose not to fund its required school payment. If that happens, the county could lose between $50 million and $60 million in state education funding.

A vote on the budget is set for Thursday. The budget must be approved by June 1.

In addition to denying Montgomery County's waiver request, the state school board denied requests by officials in Wicomico and Prince George's counties. The counties had sought waivers of the maintenance-of-effort law that requires jurisdictions to maintain per-pupil spending from year to year.

In its decision Friday, the state board found that the counties had not met the burden of proof in showing that revenue losses would prevent the counties from meeting the required funding levels.

This is the first time Montgomery County has sought a maintenance-of-effort waiver from the state. Jurisdictions in the state were given a uniform school funding waiver during the recession of the early 1990s.