These 146 students that we still have to get over the hump have a story and the staff in our schools know those stories because those stories are part of the whole child and the whole child is who we educate. So, we will continue intentionally instructing with our students who are just learning the English language and still have to be tested. We will continue to cross barriers with our students who have significant learning disabilities and still have to be tested. We will continue to build relationships with our students and families who enroll in May from other states, other countries and still have to be tested. Success takes on many forms. So, thank you for letting us share a little bit about our reading journey and success in BCSC. As you can see, we are passionate about this work. It matters and our students deserve our very best.
But we're going to do this to tell you because now it's on your deed forever. That it goes with the land that this property has wetlands on it or a resource area on it and you need and all it says is that you have to come to the conservation commission before you do anything. It doesn't say you're going to be you can't do what you want to do. It just says you have to come to the commission. And for a single family home, I can completely see that scenario happening. As a single family homeowner, you know, you might not even know what that means, right? >> Uh or might not know what wetlands even are or that you have them on your property >> or have read your deed, >> right? Uh for a project of this scale, you know, that's just not ever going to be the case.
That's one that Alana's going to stop just about every time. Alana Duffy looking for a clear. It's an interesting situation here. We got attackers coming back over the restraining line. Stay away from that sideline, Payton. Alyssa Brown with the ball. Allie picks it up. Nice. Ali Marseglia. Gets the ball down. Couldn't get it past the 30 where the defender was waiting for her. Oop. She's Sammy. Wrecked her right in the head. Lucky she didn't get called on that. Norwood on the offense again. Here we go. Julia Naughton with the ball. I think that's Julia No, that's not Julia Naughton. Maddie Doucette over to number These ponytails are getting in the way. I can't read them anyways. Norwood has the ball. Nice cut look. Oh, buries it. >> [cheering] >> That was a nice cut, nice pass. As I said, you get that one step on that defender, you got to let it rip, and she did.
So we wouldn't be able to get to them um until probably next. So, so my question is is then why do you have to have the moratorum then? Why don't you resend that moratorum at your next board meeting? >> Um, we wouldn't be able to. I mean, they can get that process going. >> Yeah, but why would you have a moratorum then? If you can get the process going, why don't you just get rid of it? >> I can bring it up to the board. >> Okay. Well, I think we would like to see some type of action on that because we at the last meeting you could have you could have easily said that you would bring it up to the board, but you guys you decided not to, you know, commit to that and we were asking you why do we still have that in place and you say, okay, continue.
You know, 10 students special ed move into town. Okay? Food the food arrears. We have we have an issue with kids can't pay for food for something. I don't know, whatever it is. We need to we need to fix something. Um we can move some of that into we could use some of that for uh the capital reserve and maintenance, too. Those are things that you need in case there is some kind of um you know, issue. It's Without a surplus, you were you you have a better chance of going into deficit. Okay? Without a surplus, you have a better chance of going into deficit. Deficit. A lot of these Bergen County towns that never thought they would ever be in a deficit are in trouble now. Okay? The surplus gives you a little bit of cushion. It's not going anywhere. If we don't need it, we kick it out into next year.
So, it's a lot of your um learning opportunities for your teachers. So, professional development for teachers. So, we looked at those two federal programs and also had no non-compliance issues to report there. Um so, lastly, the uniform system of financial records um this is the document I mentioned earlier that the state auditor will look at to determine compliance. I point out that there are quite a number of pages of compliance requirements that we have to design audit procedures for to test and they range they run the whole gamut. You know, we look at things like did your board meetings were they properly noticed um in terms of agendas and that type of thing. Um we look at things like procurement, student attendance, um uh you know, did you like your payroll? Are you Are you paying your people in accordance with the contracts and the policies that the board established?
It's why we're here why we are here. What questions do you have because we are super proud of that 90% projected passing rate? I think for me, you you had an interesting comment about the number of kids that still have to be tested that are move-ins. And it doesn't need to be a presentation like this, but I think it'd be interesting to see and it could help establish how great BCSC is at teaching the the science of reading here and the success that we have on the test that maybe show some statistics of other areas, whether it's other states or other school districts that move in. Kind of break that out for us. I don't have a question, but um I'll tell you when we had um pretty close to prior to testing, we had snow days and late start days and e-learning days and every time I heard one of those, I actually thought about the the I read coming up and to me that's an extra um commendation that that the teachers came through even under difficult circumstances.
I I I think uh our preference would be to not put any of this language on there. I think we would be okay with something that said that there are wetlands on the property. um the the f the use of fertilizer and you know those kinds of things um just raise antenna unnecessarily and I think just cause uh concern where I don't think the commission is gaining anything um by putting that on the deed uh because that's going to be followed obviously it's part of the order of conditions and something that the applicant will have to comply with. You don't have a problem with saying that there are wetlands. How about the language wetlands and accompanying conditions? >> Sure. Order of conditions, you know, wetland and order of associated associated order conditions. >> As soon as your project's done, you're going to probably come in and get a certificate of compliance.
Yeah, she was pretty open there. She She Good luck by the the passer to get it out, and then she fired away, but someone had lost her coming across the middle. Defense is going to have a powwow down there, see what's going on. Hopefully we can get this draw here. You know, so 4 minutes into the third quarter, and the ball has not been in the Ashland offensive zone here. I could put my phone somewhere, but there's nowhere to put it. All right. Go here, see what we can do. You know the story. Payton, Lily. Payton picks it up. Nice job. Self draw. See if she can get rid of the ball here. Let's set something up. Over to Maggie McGuinness. Maggie looking for Ashley Forrester. Ali Marseglia coming into the play a little late. Here she is. Gets the ball. Look at this cutter coming right through the middle.
It's going to end at the end of the year and you would you there was no process of of you know initial review. So, it doesn't make sense if you're going to initially review them but then have the moratorum in place. it there's some disconnect there because I think what the problem is is it's a perception problem. The perception is that we don't want to help the teacher pipeline. That's the perception that the HTSB is giving off right now and I'm trying to help you with that perception problem. I appreci I appreciate that. But I just um if I can too if I can just explain why um the reason why we had to have that moratorum up is because in the past there were uh EPPS that educator prep programs that um were not following the guidelines. It became it it was a legal issue.
Just like we've been doing, but hopefully maybe a little less. All right? It's budgeting. Again, I think at your house or in your own family, you probably have something aside. See, you have you have one pot aside to go on vacation, and you got another pot on the side in case God forbid the roof falls in, right? Okay? Well, hopefully you do. All right? That's what we need here, too. Same thing with that capital reserve maintenance, okay? So, instead of taking that surplus money and putting it into the tax levy so that we all save $6 or whatever, which I know is important, okay? The more important thing is to make sure we are fiscally responsible so that I'm not here in next June saying to the board, "We're in a deficit. State monitors coming in. We can't control our money cuz we couldn't budget the right way." Doesn't make any sense.
So, it covers quite a number of different areas. So, lastly before I turn it back over to Francy, I just want to give a huge, you know, shout out to everybody at the district, Ms. Bidel, um Lisa's in the back back there, and Francy. Um they do uh a lot of work in getting everything to us in a very timely fashion so that we're able to issue the reports on time. And then one more time, we're looking forward to new accounting standards that have to be implemented. They should not be I've been told by, you know, the GASB people that they don't expect these to be as heavy of a lift, but we'll we'll let you know next year how heavy of a lift they are. But the district um does have two more um two more um audits or accounting standards rather to implement this coming year.
I appreciate all the effort that all the teachers and uh their support staff around them, the aides as well. And And let's not forget about the parents that have uh been the primary source uh of early learning for children. Um I will I will ask this. I think I hope you have uh learned enough about me that you should have anticipated that I was going to ask about this is good for I read, but do we have anything for I math? So, you are going to get your wish next year. So, the uh new legislation that I know that you all hear so much about really talks about math math instruction. What does that look like? What are we going to do for our students that are at proficiency, above proficiency, or are not quite at proficiency? So, we my my partner Amy Elsbury and I, we have been going to all the sessions from the state that they've been offering on this new math legislation that will take uh place in the next school year.
And then >> I I I don't know how long you can own the property. I don't know if you're going to be managing the property, >> but the uh the on andm plan is also a recorded document. So that >> which >> and that's tied to the deed. >> Sure. Absolutely. It's it's uh noted when you when you do the title search for the deed, the recorded on and m plan will show up. >> Now as a 40b, this is also got a deed restriction on some of the some of the apartments being rented. I mean, they're rented. They're >> it's they're only at 80% market value, right? >> It's not in the deed per se. It's just within the comprehensive permit. >> So, the 40B the comprehensive permit as the order of conditions will be recorded against the deed, but not the [snorts] specific stipulation about, you know, any of the stipulations specifically within the 40B uh within the comp permit.
Don't force it. A little late on the pass. You got to get that pass off on that first step. Once she makes that first step, pass the ball where she's going to be, right? Yeah, there wasn't much time there to to get into the offense and see if there were other better opportunities. Now, Norwood on the clear and moving up the field. Maddie Solow with the ball over to another Norwood player. 21 with the ball again, Emma Penza. Really forcing some things here on offense, Norwood is. Hopefully they settle it down here. 15 with the ball, Ellie O'Neill. >> Try to show a little patience now. That one gets away. Hopefully Ashton can get there. Peyton's got a beat on it and she does collect it. Ground ball for Peyton Trip and heading up the field. >> Watch that stick. There you go. We're going Lainey Early with the ball coming in.
So the board had to address that. um we were having candidates that were being placed in certain areas that again they needed to follow federal law and that wasn't being done. So we had to make sure we cleaned up that. Um there was a lot of issues that had come up um where we needed to get the current EPS so that everything was in compliance and in alignment so that we could prevent again um some of the legal matters that that would have come up that had we had we >> I think my problem is that you should be able to do that while being able to review any potential new teacher pipeline programs that want to come into the state. Right? That's what I told you and I I will stand firm on that because I think you have to be able to walk in chew gum at the same time.
Okay? And again, the board uh um the BA and the board have a uh have a very strong relationship when it comes to surplus with regards to transferring, etc. etc. It's not just like we just use $10 here and there. That's not what this is about. Okay? This, in my opinion, and I can't speak for before I've been here, but this is the healthiest budget that you can possibly have. You have a surplus. You have a capital maintenance reserve. Okay? Again, surplus is a little bit less than it can be, but I think that's extremely important knowing that things happen. Things just do happen. Okay. Two more slides, I think. Here's the local tax analysis. Okay? You got the 5% on the levy. All right? Again, this will be posted. There's a lot of stuff on here. I think it's important to understand that even though we quote you on a number on an assessed uh house, okay?
And so with that, I'll turn it over to Francy. Thank you, Jennifer. Uh so, this is a summary of those questions from the uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire. Uh there's about 171 questions and uh you can see that as a district, we have five audit findings. Um I think that that is something very to be be very proud of for especially for the size of district that we are. Um of those findings, uh we had one that was related to a conflict of interest audit finding. And so, uh we have put some uh provisions in place to ensure that we can uh monitor that a little more closely. We've worked uh with our HR team and with the finance team to accomplish that. We had two in property control, and so uh we you can see there the district action taken to be able to address uh those two audit findings under property control.
So, we are we are really uh now making all of our plans. A lot of time is being invested currently this year on what how do we meet those accommodations for the new legislation around a new K uh two math screener that has to we we're that's kind of our I math. Um it's a new legislative that we have to meet we have to they have to do an assessment. We have to report out on um those students. We have to report to parents in a certain timeline where their students fall with within that screener. Um so, we are diligently looking at the state is providing two options. Uh we have to choose one of these two screeners. Uh we had a team actually today that met with one of those companies to hear about their math screener and how we could use that intentionally within our schools.
Are you going to manage the property when it's built >> or do you have a management company do that for you? >> It would be a management company >> and they get copies of the deeds and all these conditions and so forth that >> Absolutely. >> So they know what they're doing. >> Absolutely. They have to uh manage the property according to that operation and maintenance plan >> and you know all of the other operational plans that they have to follow. for sure >> through the commission. I would just note in terms of reference these conditions have been put onto larger projects such as the entirety of Captain Circle, Alunquin Trail, all of those condo associations, American Boulevard, YMCA, and Cirrus Apartments. Cirrus Apartments um promised the same with their management team and they have gone through numerous management in at least the five years that I've been here and uh every time there's a new manager, they have no idea what the order of conditions is.