public school students in 82 schools. Students must pass a standardized test, the FCAT, to graduate from high school. To avoid surprises, children are tested several times before they reach 12th grade. To comply with state testing rules, the 2011–12 school year will start August 10. The semester will end December 21. The second semester will start January 9 and conclude May 25. The district is split for administrative reasons into four "areas" which tend to have east and west lines in the narrow county which extends north and south. The areas are numbered I-IV, each having its own assistant superintendent. To get hands-on learning experience about science, the local environment and math, all fourth-graders are given a one-day field trip to the Indian River Lagoon, one of the most diverse estuaries in North America. The county is the first and only county in the state to have its school health program operated by a county health department and paid for by the school district. It has won several national awards. On an average day, 2,400 students receive nursing care including 1,260 doses of medicine. Nurses typically work seven-hour shifts, 70 hours bi-weekly. There are 107 health care professionals employed. Services are available to all students, public or private. Einstein Montessori, a private school in Brevard County, was previously a charter school. Explorer Elementary and Middle Charter, Osprey Elementary, and Sawgrass Middle were closed by the school board. Budget The last time the public approved a school building bond was in 1963. To circumvent the need for public approval for borrowing, both the county and the school district have used certificates of participation. In 2005, the board decided to build seven new schools to accommodate the 800 to 1,300 new students moving into the area annually, and renovate each of the districts schools. This would also help meet the requirement that was imposed when Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment limiting class size, starting in 2010, but phased in before then by the Florida Legislature. The school district borrowed a total of $643 million, mostly between 2004 and 2008. Annual payments on the debt in 2012 were $38.4 million. At the same time the housing bubble burst. Property values, on which school taxes were based, dropped from $41 billion in 2008 to $27 billion in 2011. At the same time, the cost of construction materials rose. Estimates to renovate Titusville