Penncrest School District officials managed to fit a batch of elementary school computers into a 2007-08 budget that didn't hike property taxes.

Taxpayers might not be so lucky this time around.

The district's School Board will vote in late June on a 2008-09 budget, featuring a K-12 science-curriculum revision, which proposes raising property taxes by 1 mill to balance it.

The average assessed value of a Crawford County home in the district is $26,747, which will leave the owner of this average home paying an additional $27 annually in property tax if the budget is adopted as proposed, district officials said.

The proposed $50 million budget includes 4 percent increases in natural-gas and electricity costs, a 5 percent increase for contracted busing services, a 15 percent increase in gasoline costs, and an 18 percent increase for diesel fuel, Business Manager Bill Fendya said.

Although district officials said that no tax increase is good news, Penncrest residents can comfort themselves in knowing that their proposed tax hike is the lowest among Crawford County's four school districts.

The biggest proposed tax hike is in the Crawford Central School District, where School Board members gave tentative approval Monday to a roughly $52 million budget that includes a proposed 3.58-mill tax increase.

Crawford Central's millage rate is currently 42.23.

The average assessed house in the district is $31,394, and the proposed increase would cost its owner an additional $112 annually in school taxes, Business Manager Guy O'Neil said.

About $500,000, or 1.25 mills, of the proposed budget is dedicated to planned renovations to two of the district's six elementary schools, O'Neil said.

Those renovations, which the district is still collecting bids on, are part of a roughly $37 million project to upgrade all six of the district's elementary buildings over the next several years.

Crawford Central is paying for the building renovations through two bond issues that will generate a total of $26.5 million.

Other factors at play in the proposed budget are transportation costs, which are up about 6 percent; salaries, which are up $600,000; and medical benefits, which have increased about 7.5 percent, O'Neil said.

Taxpayers in the Conneaut School District are facing a proposed 2.74-mill tax increase under a proposed $34.7 million budget that the School Board gave tentative approval to on May 14.

The owner of a home assessed at $20,000 would pay an additional $54 in school taxes under the proposal, Business Manager Norman Yeager said.

Although the district has no building projects in its budget, it is in the third year of a four-year program to replace computers, Yeager said.

Other factors affecting the budget include a 13 percent increase in tuition reimbursement for the district's teaching staff and higher lawn-care service costs. District officials have also factored in increased costs of 3 percent for natural gas and 8 percent for electricity, Yeager said.

The Titusville School District's proposed $27.6 million budget for 2008-09 calls for tax increases of 1.34 mills in Crawford County, 1.33 mills in Venango County and 3.39 mills in Warren County, business manager Shawn Sampson said.

The average Crawford County home in the district is assessed at $17,000, and the proposed millage increase would raise its tax bill by $22.78 annually, he said.

One effect on the proposed budget comes from its state subsidy, Sampson said. While the district typically received at least 3 percent, the level has been set at 1.5 percent, which cut about $190,000 from the district's budget, he said.

The district has also budgeted an additional $60,000 for diesel fuel for its busses, and it anticipates a 5 percent increase in natural-gas costs, Sampson said.