Public schools will need $1.5 million more next school year, much of it to pay for fuel, Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Dr. James Price said Thursday.

The hope is that all of the new revenue will come through higher valuations and more property to tax across the county, with no change in tax rates.

The proposed spending plan will be explained to the public at a hearing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the administration building on Mission 66.

Overall, it projects $77.38 million needed for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, up from $75.93 million being spent this year.

Most of the district’s money comes from the state Adequate Education formulae, but an increasing share comes from local taxpayers in assessments on homes, businesses and industries and personal property including vehicles.

For this year, the county’s practice of reappraising one-fourth of existing parcels per year increased by about $800,000 the amount of money available to schools and no rate change was needed. For the previous year, school taxes rose slightly.

Once school board members adopt a budget, they send a funding request to the Warren County Board of Supervisors, which is required to calculate the tax rate needed and impose the new rate to be effective Oct. 1.

Initially, total valuation of real and personal property was set at $3.1 billion by the Warren County Tax Assessor’s Office in 2007, an increase of about 7.6 percent over the previous year. Homestead act abatements and other commercial adjustments mandated by the Legislature dampen the increase somewhat.

The 9,200-student district operates countywide and maintains a fleet of buses for student transportation. All buses use diesel, which is now the most expensive fuel. Rising fuel costs are already exceeding projections made for the current budget and sucking funding from other projects, Price said.

“We’re impacted just like everybody else,” he said. “We’re having to juggle money around.”

“We estimated that there would be an increase in energy costs and fuel costs and all that, but we didn’t think it would be that much,” he said.