Property taxes: School tax bills for most homeowners will rise at least 17 percent. That's based on the new tax rate of $7.87 for every $1,000 of taxable property value. The rate, a decrease from $8.11 last year, is the lowest for local schools in 19 years. However, homeowners are still going to pay more school taxes because property values continued to jump this year. The value of all property in the county soared 23.8 percent.

Teacher bonuses: The state has a new performance pay program called "Special Teachers Are Rewarded." The school district is receiving $9.9 million to award 5 percent bonuses to the top 25 percent of teachers, based on student test scores and other factors. It's a big change from last year's program, which had only $3 million for teacher bonuses. This year's budget also includes a 4 percent across-the-board raise for teachers.

School operations: The district's general fund budget is $1.4 billion, a $90.1 million increase from last year. Administrators say 64.5 percent of the fund will be spent on classroom instruction, up from 63.1 percent. Operating expenses include employee salaries and benefits, textbooks, supplies, equipment, utilities, and transportation.

School construction: The construction budget provides $575.8 million for building new schools, replacement schools and classroom additions. Some bigger items include $57 million in land purchases, $32.7 for a new Pahokee middle school, $38.1 million for a modernization of C.O. Taylor/Kirklane Elementary and $13.3 million for a Wellington High School auditorium. A combination of sales tax and property tax dollars, and loans, covers the project costs.

Class sizes: The budget for reducing class sizes is $144.2 million, up $40.5 million. All of the money is provided by the state, intended for the hiring of teachers. For this year, the district must meet school-by-school class size averages of 18 for kindergarten to grade 3, 22 for grades 4-8, and 25 for grades 9-12.

Emergency money: There is a $39.4 million contingency budget, which is 2.8 percent of the district's operating budget. That's less than the 3 percent target, but officials say it's as close to the mark as they could get without cutting dollars from academic programs. Last year, $10.5 million from the account was used for Hurricane Wilma recovery efforts; that money has been restored.

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