Well, good morning, everybody.

It is 10.04 a.m.

and we will officially call the educational opportunities meeting to order.

Madam Clerk, we please call the roll.

Councilmember Corr.

Councilmember McKee Rodriguez.

Councilmember Mungia.

Councilmember Castillo.

Here.

Chair Godland.

Sir, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

First things first, do we have any uh edits to the minutes?

If not, can I get a motion to approve?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, any abstentions?

Moving along.

Um, do we have any public comment today?

All right, then we will jump right into it.

Today we have a couple presentations.

Uh, we have first and foremost a conversation around community schools, a kind of model of ways that uh communities can intervene with and support our local schools and ways they can kind of help our larger community in that work itself.

Uh so for that model, we have Alejandro Lopez who we're presenting today, so come on up.

Not to be confused.

There's an Alejandra Lopez who is the executive assistant to the superintendent at SAISD, so there's three of us.

There's three of us.

Okay.

Uh hello, everyone.

I do want to say that my very cute typeface did not transfer into this, and so um I would not choose Times New Roman for this topic.

I just want let the record reflect.

Um, my name is Alejandro Lopez.

It is an honor and a privilege to be here in front of the committee today.

I am a second grade teacher on leave for my position and currently serve as the president of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel.

We're the union that represents teachers and support personnel in San Antonio ISD.

Um, and so excited to be here to give a very brief overview of the community schools model.

So when we talk about community schools, the term community schools gets uh, I would say enters into the conversation often.

And oftentimes people are talking about a model which is largely around wraparound services.

And so that can include a food pantry, a clothing closet, additional tutoring.

And while we know that those wraparound services, particularly in a district like San Antonio ISD or really any of your southern um districts, is incredibly important because of the working class communities of color we serve.

When our union um and other organizations that are interested in transformational change talk about community schools, we uh include so much more.

And so um I want to share kind of what we consider the pillars of the sustainable and transformational community school models to be.

And these pillars draw from um both uh American Federation of Teachers, which is um one of our national unions, and the National Education Association, who have really led the way in introducing um this model throughout the country alongside the Institute for Educational Leadership.

IEL is a nonprofit organization.

Um their vision is an equitable society in which shared leadership effectively uses all available resources for the betterment of their community, and so I would say it's very telling that IEL is a big proponent of the community schools model.

They hold a national conference every single year that uh brings together partners, school districts, um, unions from across the country to really talk about the benefits of the model and how we can ensure that the model is truly meeting the needs of our students and families.

So I'm gonna just briefly go through these pillars.

These this is they're very wordy on there.

I know you're not supposed to include this much text, but I just there's so much good stuff here.

Um, so the first two are a strong and proven curriculum.

You know, in Texas, we do not take for granted uh what the impact of curriculum is every day in our classrooms.

And so strong and proven curriculum is a key component.

It includes, of course, culturally relevant material, something that our union is very passionate about, reflecting the diversity of our students.

It also includes things like AAP and um IB, two programs that are really rigorous and are college prep.

Um, and then it also recognizes that sports, arts, all of these things are absolutely necessary to a well-rounded education.

High quality teaching is another.

Um, so we, you know, within the community school's model, it is incredibly important that our teachers are fully certified and that they are working collaboratively to plan those lessons, to analyze student work and adjust curriculum.

Um, you know, it is really unfortunate that particularly in a state like Texas, we have a number of education institutions that are not hiring fully certified teachers, and fully certified knowledgeable teachers is a key component of the community schools model.

One that we are incredibly passionate about is inclusive leadership.

So this really builds on what our campuses have right now, which is a campus advisory council, and really, you know, as opposed to just bringing people together to kind of get feedback, really puts both educators, parents, students, and campus administration at the table so that they are making shared decisions.

And so shared decision making is a really important piece, and it's inclusive of everyone who has a stake in the success of our students and of a school.

And so it's structured in a way where you know anything that impacts the life of the school is going to come to that group and is gonna not just get feedback but also make decisions collectively.

A culture of belonging safety and care.

This really is uh I would say talks about what was previously called like the approach to discipline, right?

We no longer say approach to discipline because you know our students are full human beings.

We talk more about classroom management, and now we really put it under this umbrella, which is the idea that our students should feel safe, they should belong, that we should ensure that all of our interactions or that we're modeling positive interactions between student to student, student to adult, and that we are implementing a restorative practices at the campuses as well.

So peer mediation, restorative circles.

It really just talks about how we are dressing behavior in our campuses.

Which, if you talk to any teacher, you know, it is a very important topic in our schools at the moment, particularly coming up coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Um, family and community partnerships.

Uh, so again, other really critical pillar, I think what's really important about this is you know, seeing our families as a part of our school community, not just you know, for them to show up once a night for parent night, for but for them to be really embedded into the fabric of our schools.

You know, research shows that when students are at a school where parents are welcome and where the part the education is really a partnership between uh educators, administrators, and families is when you're gonna see the best outcome.

And then the last one, which is probably the one that most people think about when they think about community schools, is those community support services.

So, you know, providing meals, some community schools provide on-site health care, provide mental health counseling.

I mentioned, you know, food pantry or clothing closets.

It's really just the understanding that our students are most successful and our families are most successful when their material needs are being met, and how can we embed those services within the school so that families aren't having to go to four different agencies to access these services?

Something that already occurs in schools in San Antonio.

So benefits of the model, academic achievement, educator retention, parent engagement, and attendance.

I lift these up because as someone who has come to committee meetings and sits in board meetings, you know, regularly.

I mean, these are the things that consistently come up when we're talking about education.

They are all linked, they are all important.

Research shows that they all feed into one another, and the research on community schools as a model shows that you see improvement in each of these areas pretty consistently when the model's being put into practice and is really holding true to those pillars.

So, you know, I know that y'all are all very invested in research.

I've come to the committee meeting before and heard y'all talk about the importance of data, and so I there's lots of different research.

I do want to lift up two studies because they are comprehensive.

So the first one is illustrating the promise of community schools, and this is a study measuring the impact of community schools in New York City.

And you know, New York City, of course, is a different landscape, but when we are talking about schools that are made up of diverse communities of color from working class backgrounds, I think you'll see a lot of similarities between some of our schools, particularly in SAISD, and schools in New York.

And so you'll just see some of the positive impacts on attendance, a reduction in disciplinary incidents, you know, credit accumulation, just things that really are key markers of what we are measuring when we're talking about a successful school.

And then the one that I printed out for y'all, because I said maybe they'll like if I hand it to them, they'll like, you know, it'll be in their hands and they'll read it.

But I can't really speak enough about how important this study is.

In 2021, California as a state made an unprecedented investment in the community schools model.

They invested $4.1 billion.

I know in Texas we can only dream, right?

Um, but you know, in comparison to the national investment in community schools, which up until that point was only 670 million invested by the federal government.

You can see how California, through the advocacy of, you know, educator unions, parent organizations, student organizations, really invested in the community schools model as a response to what they were seeing post COVID-19.

Um, and really in 2021, I mean it wasn't even post-right.

We were still in the thick of the pandemic, but we were starting to see the impact of you know what that disruption in our students' lives really meant.

Um, so they invested 4.1 billion.

They had a very strong model that really drew on the pillars that I just spoke about.

Um, they created this program where schools could apply, districts could apply for this funding.

And so this report just came out last fall, and so it is incredibly current and comprehensive and reinforces the success of what we've seen before.

Um, I think most notably gains were largest for historically underserved students.

So they did distribute the money with through an equity lens, really um ensuring that schools that you know were serving students from underserved communities.

They they got more funding.

Um, but you can see here, I mean, one of the things that we are constantly talking about is how do we drive academic achievement, better attendance, and ultimately better outcomes on all levels in our historically marginalized and divested from communities, and the community schools model as evidenced through this study shows that it is a way to address these historical inequities.

Um, and just a little bit community schools in action, you know, like what does it look like?

I I want to lift up this um example from Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles Unified School District is massive, it is huge, but they manage to implement the community schools model, I think in a really robust way.

And so you can see they do a parent engagement program at their community school sites, the Promotoras, and they, you know, they train their parents, um, they empower their parents, and through this model, they really demonstrate how much of a partnership schools should be between our families, our parents, and our community.

So potential opportunities, just I think for this committee, I recognize that in San Antonio with 17 independent school districts, and you know, uh the budget pressures that we are all facing, both at the city and at the district level.

Um, but I, you know, I do have to say an increase in funding for organizations that partner with school districts, I think is is definitely an important opportunity.

I think exploring opportunities for more integrated support and aligning that support with these partnership expectations.

I would say the the straightforward, you know, thing is like, oh, we're gonna invest more money in services and embed those services in the school.

And like I said, while that is incredibly important and we would all welcome that, the real power of the community schools model is how you're bringing people together to make important decisions about the school and our students, and that shared decision making, I think is what um equates to stronger outcomes.

Well, thank you so much, Aljandra, for the presentation and appreciate uh the big packet you give us as well for some more details here.

Uh would anybody let's start with any questions or comments?

If not, come.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Um, I I agree with everything that's been presented here.

This work is really important, and I was just trying to basically think of ways that our work could be connected to the community schools model, and so there's a couple of things that I think are um important takeaways for us, and one is the wraparound service piece, and so we talked about this a lot with the delegate agency work that we just moved forward for this upcoming year.

And delegate agencies are those organizations in our community providing those wraparound services.

So the one of the ones that we added to our funding this year, an initial provide social emotional learning in SCISD schools for kids that need that more that need additional support and and like wraparound services can be so much and there's so much need for them.

And so I know we're only providing a small portion of funding for wraparound services, but I think that one I just wanted to highlight is like we I know all three of us are aligned on that work, but um as we go through our trial budget on Thursday, there are some discussions coming up about potentially cutting that funding, and I think this could be a good basis for saying why that that would be disastrous for us for our community members.

And then the second thing is I didn't I didn't see it mentioned in this presentation, but from my background, community schools also focus on extended learning and summer opportunities for kids because uh as what we see in our and we know this from our city programming that we offer that kids that have access to social and cultural capital are right now probably traveling, going to museums, seeing different getting different experiences, all that's not gonna prevent summer slide.

But if you don't have that access, you there's a lot of a gap that occurs.

So as a teacher, you always see that summer slide coming in where kids have forgotten a lot of what they've learned from the last year, and so encouraging after school programs, which is another thing that we fund in our four urban core districts, is important that we continue that, and then also summer programming and how we can grow our own city summer programming, but partner with some of our nonprofits that are doing great work and even our museums that are city run to ensure that during the summer they're enrolling equitably because those summer camps fill up so fast and and they they do have opportunities, but sometimes it's you know it can be a challenge.

So I just think it's really important for us to continue to partner with our local organizations that are doing that wraparound work because we may not be able to directly control the curriculum that kids are being taught, which is govern at the state level, but we can control a lot of the other supports to fill in the gaps that are not occurring right now because we don't have direct oversight over them.

So I think that was the main thing that I was thinking about um as I was listening to the presentation, and uh, and then the last thing I just wanted to mention around like restorative justice and how the when we train that at a young age for kids that translates up throughout and it should translate up for us throughout the I guess what you might call it the system, right?

But if we can address restorative justice for kids and restorative discipline in K-12 and then show folks that they have a second chance, even when they're in the real world, we're getting we're showing people that it's okay to make a mistake, and you'll um as long as you're learning from it, there's another opportunity for you.

So um just wanted to uh share that.

But that's I mean, all of these things can be the last thing I'll say, and this is just kind of a rant, is that these things are so easy to say, but they're really hard to implement in a school because when you're uh going from class to class and teaching all day, and you don't have any space to collaborate, like one of the things mentioned for teacher leadership is collaboration, but if your leadership is not building in cross vertical collaboration or horizontal collaboration, that's not possible.

And so the structure of the system itself makes this really difficult to actually execute, even though it seems like very intuitive.

Like, yeah, of course you should create a culture of care in a school.

Like, why would you not want to do that?

It's like, well, I'm trying to, you know, so do five things at the same time.

So, anyways, um, that's just a little bit of ramp, but thank you for the presentation.

Thanks, Rick.

Thank you.

Council Recastillo.

Thank you, Sharon.

Thank you, Alejandro, for the presentation.

Uh, as the councilwoman mentioned, right?

This is a very timely presentation as we discuss budget priorities and our delegate agency support and what that looks like.

Uh, I'm also interested in terms of the school climate and discipline, right, and school suspension, uh, transfers to alternative schools, so on and so forth.

I had an interesting conversation with uh Benny Price, a big Mama Safe House, and he shared that many of the youth programs often focus to 16 to 24, but we're not providing support.

He there's not a large amount of support or emphasis in terms of 13 to 14-year-olds, uh, which is where from his experience in the neighborhood is where kids have uh the most in need and often deviate into different types of crime potentially.

Um so I I think this serves of a a lot of value, the emphasis on the school climate and discipline.

Um, but also again, right, as we're having conversations about delegate agencies, how can we work with Big Mama Safe House, all the delegate agencies who are providing the community support for our youth, but again, right, going uh younger in terms of the support that's necessary.

But I really appreciate uh your emphasis on the aligning of partnerships and uh co-creating those expectations uh so that way we can be intentional again, right, with the limitations of the state and limited local dollars uh to make the greatest impact.

But just thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much.

Uh, I had a question related to that point about the alignment, right?

I think that's the most crucial part.

We have a lot of groups here, it's everyone's point uh that do really good work that we know uh are doing this work in our our schools and in our city, um, and beyond our educational walls, uh, with our youth, and so wondering how we can make sure that they're aligned as much as possible is crucial.

I don't know if I know Melody here for different conversations, and I don't want to steer too far off.

But do you have any information about how with the delegate agencies um do we have conversations with education uh with our ISDs directly about what things that they need or any kind of like support service that are they're looking for uh before we kind of just allocate it out, or what's that kind of what does that look like?

So, what we'll do is and we've done this for years with especially San Antonio ISD because so many of the programs are are serving their kids, is just you know, work with them to make sure that these are the programs they want in their schools, so that we're not making decisions in a vacuum, and then you know the school says, Yeah, that's not what we need.

So we do that during the process, and then we also invite um school district representatives to sit on the panels.

Got it.

That's helpful to know, and I'd be interested in looking more into that either in this committee later on, just kind of seeing what things we can work on.

Um, but yeah, that's great to sure.

I will say that I think one of the strengths of the community schools model when implemented is a very comprehensive needs and assets assessment at the very start of the process, and that is a very robust process that includes you know, teachers and support staff and administrators, but also parents, students, and community members.

The process can take, you know, and should take several months because it really is an opportunity for the community itself to come together and say what are the things that we need, but also what are the things that we have.

So it's within an asset-based framework.

Um, and I think that is that being the foundation on which the model builds from is really valuable, particularly, you know, in our communities.

Can you talk a little bit too about who conducts that uh, yeah.

So I think one a key component of the community schools model as I've outlined is having a community schools coordinator.

So one of the things, and I and I think councilwoman core can really speak to this.

I mean, you know, everyone is very at capacity within a school, from your teacher to your APs to your principals.

So the community school model really advocates for a community schools coordinator position.

Oftentimes they say that that person is already at your school, right?

It's all so, you know, for example, with SAISD's peace rooms, right?

They looked for the person on campus that students were already going to when they were in crisis, right?

Um, and so the community schools coordinator is someone that should come probably already from the school ecosystem, and that person holds all of this work, right?

They are the person responsible for the alignment, particularly between the school and other um agencies that are coming, and so they would be the person who would be um conducting this, you know, planning the meetings, that kind of thing, and they, you know, will have received kind of robust training to that regard.

But it's someone already embedded within the community who's just responsible for you know starting and carrying out the process and then ensuring that the pillars are being upheld.

Thank you for that.

That's helpful just to kind of wrap our minds around where it could come from, what it could look like here in our city.

Of course, we still have that scattered landscape a little bit here, but it could be interesting too.

I know uh in conversation with other council members, talking about our delegate agencies, it's always thinking about too about scale or investment too, right?

Um that's a you know, ideological conversation a little bit too about how we have limited resources do we target in one area or one primary focus versus kind of spreading it then all throughout.

Um, so it'd be interesting to kind of explore that maybe with city staff and any ISD staff are interested as well.

Um, but we can continue to do that work beyond this meeting.

Anything else from my committee members?

Yeah.

I'm just gonna make a plug back for the thing that we started the committee with with our data collection.

And like I feel like the more we can go back and show where, like, for example, the peace rooms that are being run are being supported by the nonprofit.

So I I'll really want to be able to show where our folks are doing work and the growth that we're seeing in those areas because I feel like it'll make our um debate for or defense, you know what I'm saying?

Like the defense to move this work forward even more impactful, where we see all like, oh, we do see gains in this campus.

What are all the other organizations that are pushing in, like and who who's been supporting that school aside from just leadership and curriculum?

Like there's probably other things going on, and if we could identify that, it would help us I think defend the the work.

Yes, thank you, Chair.

I'm I'm kind of thinking through my thought right now, right?

But I'm thinking in terms of again the landscape of San Antonio, so many school districts, uh, and what you would envision that facilitation looking like in terms of convening several school districts, and then of course getting to the route, right?

Getting to the families and the teachers to help give that input.

Um, I guess do you have a framework in mind on how we can accomplish that?

Would that be through um city staff support?

Would that be through um hiring a consultant to facilitate?

But again, like that's outside of the scope of the school.

Um, so I'm just can you walk us through what you envision for the city of San Antonio?

What it would look like to convene uh folks around a community school model.

Yeah, I think I think first and foremost, it is a funding thing.

When we've had conversations with trustees and our superintendent, you know, at the at its most basic one, you have to line up partners, but then you also need that one FTE for the coordinator because what what I know from talking with colleagues from across the country is they are kind of the linchpin to ensuring that the model can be implemented successfully.

Unfortunately, we are in a budget situation where you know we are not at uh we don't have the resources to even fund what our current campuses are with full services like a library and et cetera, so much less for an additional FTE.

Um, and so I think you know, when we think about it, it's like what can what does a pilot program look like?

We're where school communities get to we we are we want to move into this model, and then how can we find the funding for you know that position to ensure that the model can be implemented from start to finish.

And I think that's something that can definitely happen across multiple districts, and I think it would actually probably be a valuable thing to be happening across multiple districts so they can convene back together and discuss, you know, how's it going, what's going well, what are the challenges, that kind of thing.

Appreciate that.

Yeah, thanks.

Thanks, Cheryl.

Well, thank you so much, Alejandro.

I really appreciate the presentation.

Um, looking forward to continuing this conversation throughout the rest of our time.

All right.

Next, we'll move into uh the youth commission presentation.

Of course, we have had a lot of conversations here at the committee about education, about the data of it all, and it's all necessary, but also I think it's important to get uh the folks that we appointed who are experiencing this work every day are students, and so we have both youth education or youth commission and our higher education student advisory board after this one as well, and so Melody, take it away.

I'll just very quickly do an introduction, and so good morning, Chair Galvan and committee members.

I'm Melody Weosley, Human Services Director, and we are very excited to be here with members of the San Antonio Youth Commission and the Higher Education Student Advisory Board for the next two items.

So for number three, you'll hear from Divya Beerham, Chair of the San Antonio Youth Commission, and she will provide an overview of the commission's charge, share youth identified budget priorities, and discuss how these um influence educational outcomes in our areas.

And then for item number four, you'll hear from Jonah Martinez, who's the mayor's appointee, and Victoria Shipley, who is chair of the advisory board.

And they'll provide an overview of the board and the 2025 San Antonio Higher Education Student Survey.

And that will include recommendations to continue to strengthen student success.

And so I will turn it over to Divya this time.

Good morning, Chair Galvan and members of the Educational Opportunities Committee.

My name is Divia Beira.

I'm a senior at TMI Episcopal and chair of the San Antonio Youth Commission, appointed by City Council District 8.

I'm part of the 2025-2026 USA debate team representing the United States this summer at the World Schools Debating Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.

I'm honored to present today on behalf of the San Antonio Youth Commission, which we often affectionately dub as SACE.

Before we get started, I'd like to provide a brief overview of what we'll cover in today's presentation.

First, I'll introduce the San Antonio Youth Commission, or CECI, and discuss our role in supporting youth in San Antonio.

Next, I'll share budget priorities identified by Youth in San Antonio through the Youth Budget Survey and annual youth budget town halls.

These priorities will reflect will reflect rather what young people believe is most important to their well-being, development, and future success.

Finally, I'll discuss the connection between these priorities and educational outcomes in San Antonio area students.

First, a little bit on who we are.

CECI was established on June 25th, 1991, with the goal of providing youth a platform in San Antonio government to respond to current situations that impact youth, develop solutions, and act as representatives.

CECI is made up of 22 high school students with two representatives appointed by the mayor and each city council district member.

Commissioners attend monthly public commission meetings, present to the mayor and city council, conduct media interviews, and lead collaborative efforts to address key issues affecting young people in San Antonio.

CECE commissioners have led initiatives focused on mental health, civic engagement, and access to educational resources through citywide events and initiatives such as the Teen Mental Health Surveys, Youth Led Mayoral Forum, the annual youth budget town hall, Teens Day SA, and the We Hear Youth Summit.

Here's a list of the current members appointed by the mayor and city council district members.

The photo is from our promotion of the launch of the 2026 Teen Mental Health Survey at City Council with Project Worth Teen Ambassadors.

To better understand youth priorities for the fiscal year 2026 budget, the city conducted a youth budget survey and hosted the 2025 Youth Budget Town Hall.

The fiscal year 2026 youth budget survey was developed to ensure that young people had a direct voice in the City of San Antonio's budget process.

The survey invited youth and young adults to identify services, programs, and community investments they believe should be prioritized in the upcoming fiscal year budget.

The 2025 Youth Budget Town Hall was a youth focused public engagement event that provided young people with an opportunity to learn about the city budget, discuss community needs, and share recommendations with city leaders.

The event was organized through a partnership between the San Antonio Youth Commission, the Higher Education Student Advisory Board, and next level path builders to increase youth participation in local government and civic engagement.

For the fiscal year 2026 youth budget survey, we received 185 responses, with representation from each council district.

This helped city staff and youth leaders identify citywide budget priorities for the youth in San Antonio, which directly influenced the format of the 2025 Youth Budget Town Hall.

The 2025 Youth Budget Town Hall had department level exercises where youth were able to rank their top budget categories for departments with programming and services identified as priorities by the youth budget survey.

Now looking at the actual priorities we received from those surveys.

Here is a comparison from the fiscal year 2026 budget priorities ranked through the citywide community survey and the citywide youth survey.

Based on the results of the community survey and youth survey, they both ranked affordable housing and services to assist the homeless as top priorities.

We saw differences in the third rank priorities and below.

For the community, we saw police services, homeless encampment cleanup, streets and fire emergency services, whereas youth would prioritize libraries, parks and recreation, metro health, and domestic violence protection.

Both engagement efforts revealed three consistent themes of what is needed for the San Antonio or for youth in San Antonio.

Stability at home, educational support beyond school, and health and safety.

Youth expressed having these priorities met, helps youth focus on academic success and overall well-being.

Based on the survey, we with priorities in affordable housing and services to assist the homeless.

It's evident that youth are also experiencing the ramifications of rises in cost of living, including rent and housing.

Having access to housing and having their basic needs met is the foundation to stability in their lives, which leads to academic success.

Investment in this area includes mental health, community resources, prevention services, and family supports.

With these survey results, highlighting libraries, parks and recreation, and youth services as priorities, it's evident that educational support beyond school is needed.

These service areas provide provide programming that is not only educational but provides community and soft skills for youth.

Education happens both inside and outside the classroom.

Investment for this area includes tutoring and homework assistance, testing preparation, access to technology, career readiness programs, and safe community places where youth can thrive and learn.

Lastly, the survey also identified a need for health and safety among youth with priorities.

That included metro health services, domestic violence protection, and services to assist the homeless.

Healthy communities create safe spaces for youth.

Investment in this area would include mental health programs, violence prevention, community-based services, and preventative services.

Youth expressed having these priorities met helps youth focus on academic success and their overall well-being.

Youth identified affordable housing and homelessness services as their highest citywide budget priorities, which is essential and a basic need for anyone, but especially youth during their development towards educational success.

Then the stability and safety, which aligns with housing and homelessness prevention, but focuses on mental health, supportive services, and violence prevention, which helps make youth feel safe, included, and gives them the tools to be active members of their community and excel in their education.

They also emphasize that educational success depends on access to mental health resources and libraries, tutoring, youth programming, and community spaces.

Together, these findings demonstrate that youth view student success as the result of stable living conditions, supportive services, and opportunities for learning and engagement both inside and outside the classroom.

Next, taking a look at our next steps.

Our next steps involve the analysis of the fiscal year 2027 youth budget and teen mental health surveys to continue identifying what youth in San Antonio are experiencing and the resources they need to be successful and lead a healthy life.

In addition, we're currently in the process of planning the Fiscal Year 27 Youth Budget Town Hall, which will take place in August, and youth summit in September that will focus on connecting youth to tools that will provide support and civic engagement, education, and wellness.

On behalf of the San Antonio Youth Commission, I'd like to thank the Educational Opportunities Committee for your time today, and I'd be happy to take any questions you might have.

This concludes my presentation.

Well, thank you so much, Divya.

As per usual, you did an incredible job.

We already knew that was going to happen, but I just need to commend the efforts that you did today again.

Really incredible stuff here, of course, a lot of things that we have been talking about.

Grateful to see that, of course, is alignment there with a lot of our youth.

Interested to see, you know, what the next uh youth summit and everything that we've buzzed on hall will look like.

Hopefully it can be in attendance again this round.

Um, from my uh council colleagues.

Councilman Castille.

Karen, thank you, uh Divya for the presentation, uh, as well as to Liana and Trinity, who are the district five appointees to the youth commission, just really value uh the work and initiative that y'all put into serving our youth's budget priorities.

Uh one of my ask is when we receive our budget briefing tomorrow that slide seven's included, right?

We have the larger budget survey results, council budget priorities, and I think it would be a value to include slide seven within the presentation as we're going over our budget priorities.

Um again, I think it's really interesting to see the budget priorities.

Again, you all are in the classroom at the dinner table, and as we see many of our independent school districts reduce the amount of library staff uh in their schools.

Uh, I think you all are seeing a trend in which um most of us as adults that aren't in the classroom and we're teachers uh aren't seeing, so I just really value uh the budget priorities that you all have laid out.

Uh, and I see a lot of alignment in terms of the folks on this committee and our priorities and also the work we do with youth.

Um, but just also wanted to uh highlight the connection to the first presentation with Alejandra and the alignment of the initiatives that the youth commission has taken on in terms of providing microgrants within the classroom and providing that additional support.

Um so just wanted to thank you and uh the youth commission for your leadership and your initiative.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Core.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Dara, for this presentation.

I'm sorry, I got your name wrong.

Daira's my appointee.

Remind me your name again.

Divya.

Um, shouting out my appointee, Daira, and um Aubrey who's also my appointee.

Um on slide seven, what councilman Castillo was thinking about, I was looking at both six and seven to see the low overlap, and the part that really scares me is this middle section in terms of our budget conversation, um, because libraries, parks, and parks and rec are both um some of the ones that are most being heavily affected right now.

And um, as you guys know, the I mean, as what's what y'all listed here with the safe community spaces and all the additional support.

Um, I think it's just like very um blatant that what we are the first things that we are looking at cutting is the things that you guys are highlighting that are the most important.

So um just really uh hits home for us when you guys present this.

So I think it's a very timely presentation.

We're gonna do our best to advocate for you guys and um hopefully convince some of our colleagues that uh that that this is really important, but I would invite all of you to send an email to your council person tonight and share and say, and maybe just even share this slide with them and say this is the this is what our priorities are, and this is what we would uh urge you guys to fund to continue funding, if not increase funding at least for this year.

The last thing um I just wanted to also plug is the last for three, seeing that like the domestic violence prevention part is so high, even for our youth priorities is uh it hurts me a little bit because that means that there is a reason why that is high, but seeing that up there makes me think the work that we're doing at the public safety committee is really important.

So later today, we're going to do an overview of the um report, the annual report, um, from the commission collaborative commission on domestic violence.

And so, what if anybody wants to stick around if you're already you know enjoying your summer and want to stick around City Hall?

Um, that we're gonna be doing a summary of that, but also one of the things that the inner personal violence subcommittee is working on is doing a curriculum that um it in our after-school programs that's focused on healthy habits and healthy relationships, and so we weren't able to launch it this um spring, but hopefully this could be the um evidence to show that we should at least try to get it done in the fall, um, because there is a request for mental health support programs so um and community and preventative services, I guess more so for that.

But uh thank you again for this presentation and um looking forward to seeing what you guys continue to do.

Oh, I did have a request though.

Can we see the full survey results?

Um I don't know if that I'd love to see, and maybe Alex or someone else could help us get that together.

I just or maybe Melody, if we could if you could send us over the full the data from the full results for all of the 185 youth.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh well, thank you again, Divya, uh, for the presentation.

I have a couple quick things I wanted to ask.

Um, of course, with the youth uh budget survey um in the town hall itself happens in August.

Can you remind me, does it happen before the school year starts or is it after the school year starts for most of it?

I don't know if it's I can't remember if it's in mid or early August.

It's August 22nd is the date set for the budget town hall.

And then the youth summit, I think is the first or second week in September, tentatively.

Got it, okay.

I guess I'm wondering too, right?

Um, this is not necessarily a question for you, but overall, right, just thinking about how we can better well continue to engage youth in a way that meets them where they're at, right?

And I think if we're trying to find a way to get them more engaged in this work, I know you all done a lot of incredible work to do the town halls and such.

How can we also do it maybe before the school year ends as well?

The way folks who are uh maybe getting ready for the summer.

Uh, because that's not something that's uh on their mind before it's just kind of like now straight into school at the same time.

I don't know what your thoughts are on that or what you what your opinion would be on overall engagement with other youth throughout our city.

I think I think it's an interesting problem because the budgeting process does happen within the summer where people aren't really looking at that.

I think maybe the best solution might be to have something right before the school year ends.

So April, May.

And we were considering having the youth summit during that time this year, it just didn't end up falling within our capacity as a commission, but I think moving into the next year, it's a really big priority to have a citywide event where kids are involved in doing civic engagement and learning about the budgeting process before they leave school so that they can have that in mind for when the youth budget town hall rolls around in September or August.

Well, if we ever be hopeful with that, of course, you have a captive audience here that wouldn't hopefully help out with that.

So let us know uh where you need us to step in as well to support you all.

Of course, you're our appointees, we want to make sure we're supporting every step of the way.

And I I kind of want to ask you a theoretical question a little bit.

Um, you know, if you had all the resources in the world in time and energy, um, and things were not in the way uh every single day.

What kind of things would you do for engagement overall?

What things would you like the youth commission uh to be able to have the ability to go out and do to connect with our students who aren't already engaged?

Oh gosh.

I'd definitely make a much bigger deal out of pre-registering 17 and a half-year-olds because I know that's something that the library makes a very big deal about and has a lot of services for, but they don't get a lot of opportunities to go out to schools and make sure the kids are pre-registering.

Um, I think I'd also try to have as many events with uh members of government as possible because I think that's the best way that kids can engage and actually do the learning outside the classroom that we'd love them to do is learning by speaking with the adults who are in charge who do have power to make the changes that they want to see done.

And I think we do get those opportunities pretty frequently, and we're very, very grateful.

But I think if those opportunities were made even more frequent, and especially during the summertime when kids might lose those um like engagement opportunities, it would be a really great time to kind of hammer home the importance of it.

Cool.

Well, thank you so much.

I just wanted to ask you what your kind of thoughts were.

So I appreciate that and appreciate the presentation again.

Uh, hope we can have you back soon.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate your time.

Yeah.

Now we'll move in to our final item, the overview of the higher education student advisory board uh with Melody and our wonderful speaker today.

Okay, nice.

Good morning, Chair Galvan and members of the Educational Opportunities Committee.

My name is Jonah Carmine Espinosa, and this is my colleague Victoria Shipley.

I'm a fourth year student in the University of Texas at San Antonio Top Scholar Program, and I've served three full years on the Higher Education Student Advisory Board.

First under Councilman Manny Palayas, and currently as the mayoral representative under Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones.

We are honored to present today on behalf of the City of San Antonio Higher Education Student Advisory Board and would like to recognize and thank the City of San Antonio's Department of Human Services whose support and guidance are instrumental in making what we do possible.

Okay, to provide a brief overview of this morning's presentation.

We'll begin with an introduction to our board and the role we serve within the city of San Antonio.

From there, we'll provide a broader overview of the current higher education landscape in San Antonio, including trends related to enrollment and educational attainment.

We'll also provide key findings from the 2025 San Antonio Higher Education Student Survey, which focuses on barriers impacting college persistence and degree completion among students in our community.

Finally, we will share several recommendations and potential areas for continued collaboration that we believe can help strengthen student success and support systems throughout our city.

Hello, everyone.

I'm exceptionally excited to be here in front of you today.

My name is Victoria Shipley, and I currently serve as the chair for the HESAB, as a representative for District 7 under Councilwoman Govito.

I provide a unique 360 degree perspective on higher education for the AGSAB.

Backed by over a decade of administrative and personal experience, I currently serve as the University of the Incarnate Words Director of Accreditation and Planning and Quality Improvement.

I hold an undergrad in Bachelor of Science and Legal Studies, a master's degree in organizational development, and currently I'm obtaining my master's of industrial and organizational psychology.

As a first-generation non-traditional Latina student who began this journey in 2011, well into my adulthood, and now as a parent of two successful college graduates, I understand the city's higher education ecosystem from every angle.

Classroom, administration, and household.

The HASAB was created officially in December of 2018 following the approval of the council consideration request introduced by former councilman Ray Saldania.

Today, the board is comprised of 11 student members representing the mayor and city council district, with members currently enrolled at college and universities throughout San Antonio.

The work of the board is centered around three primary goals.

First, increasing college enrollment, second, improving student persistence and attainment, and third, advising the mayor and city councils on issues impacting higher education students across our city.

In addition to the advisory role, the HESAB also collaborates on broader youth and young adult engagement initiatives through DHS.

One example includes our partnership with the San Antonio Youth Commissions, the ones that just presented before us on initiatives such as the Youth Budget Town Hall and the Youth Summit planned for this fall.

Displayed on the screen is the current composition of the higher education student advisory board, which is made up of an incredible group of student leaders who are deeply committed to improving student success and higher education outcomes within our community.

It is composed of student representatives, both from public and private institutions, and together our members represent a wide range of academic backgrounds, student experiences, and communities throughout this city.

So now that we have a brief overview of the HESAB, I want to transition to the broader higher education landscape in San Antonio.

The following data was originally sourced and presented to the HESAB in 2024 and helps provide important context regarding higher education trends, enrollment, and education attainment within our community.

In fall 2024, an estimated 1.6 million students were enrolled in post-secondary public institutions across Texas.

Here in San Antonio, there were approximately 197,750 unduplicated students enrolled during the 2024 academic year.

Additionally, all major public institutions of higher education in Bear County experience positive enrollment growth from 22 to 24, further reinforce enforcing this point from the chart that the higher from the chart from the higher education coordinating board illustrates that enrollment projections for San Antonio institutions either increasing or remaining relatively steady over this time.

This suggests that San Antonio is not facing a lack of student enrollment.

Students are entering higher education and our institutions continue to serve a significant number of learners across the city.

However, enrollment alone does not tell the full story.

The larger question is whether students are able to persist and ultimately obtain their degree or credentials that create long-term educational economic opportunity.

As we look at the educational attainment rates, we begin to see a more complete picture of the challenges facing our community.

When focusing specifically on the percentage of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher, we see that the state of Texas already falls slightly behind the national average, with 32% of Texans holding a bachelor's degree or higher compared to 34% nationally.

Even more concerning, however, is that San Antonio's educational attainment rate lags behind both state and national averages, with only 27% of residents holding a bachelor's degree or higher.

This gap in our 27% attainment rate is not caused by a lack of student capability or interest, but predictable, but by predictable real world barriers such as child care and scheduling logistics.

That forced students, that forces students to drop out between semesters, erasing their momentum.

As we reflect on the mission of the HESAB, particularly our focus on increasing college enrollment and education attainment, we recognize that San Antonio has made meaningful progress in helping students across access and enter higher education.

However, we also recognize that a large challenge still remains and requires further examination, ensuring that students are able to persist through college and ultimately cross the stage by completing their degrees and graduating.

Thank you, Victoria.

So after learning about the enrollments and educational attainment data of San Antonio, during the summer of 2024, our board focused on one fundamental question.

That question being why are students in San Antonio struggling to persist through higher education and ultimately complete their degrees.

So in collaboration with the DHS Social Analysis and Metrics team, the higher education student survey was created and launched from January 21st through April 20th, 2025 for students currently enrolled in higher education, and also for individuals who attended a college or university within the previous two years.

The survey and its subsequent analysis had three primary focus areas.

The first being the procletivity of students dropping out and their enrollment status, the second being the reasons students consider withdrawing from college, and the third being student-driven recommendations for improving retention and persistence.

So once the survey closed, once the survey closed in April 2025, the again DHS social analysis and metrics team conducted a thorough analysis of the data and its findings.

558 responses were collected, and importantly, the data was statistically significant and representative of San Antonio Cross demographic groups, helping to ensure that student perspectives were not disproportionately overrepresented or underrepresented within the analysis.

With regard to key student characteristics, we found that approximately 59.7% of respondents identified as first generation college students.

60% reported being Pell Grant eligible or Pell Grant recipients.

Interestingly, though, 52.7% of respondents felt that scholarships and grants were not accessible to them.

Additionally, 26.5% of respondents identified as students with disabilities.

Now, when examining age demographics, 57% of respondents were age 24 or older, while 43% were age 25 or older.

Now, this 43% reflects the growing presence of the quote unquote non-traditional students within higher education.

We also found that 20, roughly 20% of respondents identified as parents or guardians for children living in their household, and notably 88.3% of student parents surveyed were women.

When examining attrition risks, we asked respondents if they have one either dropped out of college or two consider dropping out of college at any point within the previous two years.

To examine the reasons behind this, we asked what are your primary reasons for dropping out or considering dropping out.

Respondents shared financial hardship as the most significant concern.

In fact, 54% of respondents reported considering leaving college due to financial circumstances.

This was closely followed by mental health concerns at 44% and 39% expressed family responsibilities as significant contributing factors.

Students also frequently identified work commitments and academic challenges impacting their ability to persist in higher education.

Okay.

Respondents were asked to share suggestions for improving retention and degree attainment.

Their suggestions included financial literacy, increased financial aid, enhanced academic advising, daycare services, and summer bridge programs.

We would like to highlight that 71.7% of student parents indicated that child care resources would improve their ability to remain enrolled.

Okay, so keep it in mind both the survey findings and the recommendations provided here directly by this respondents.

This next slide here presents a high level overview of the recommendations developed by our board.

For the sake of time, we'll only briefly highlight each recommendation today.

However, we'd be happy to discuss any of them in greater detail and continue the conversation regarding potential implementation strategies and partnerships moving forward.

So recommendation number one here I'd like to refer to as the higher education resource hub.

We envision a collaborative effort uh involving partners such as CAFE College, local school districts, colleges and universities, nonprofits, workforce organizations, and other community stakeholders to improve accessibility, navigation, and awareness of available resources and support services.

Recommendation number two relates to improving financial literacy, which as you can see here from the previous slide was the number one suggested way to improve retention from the survey responses.

So on that point, uh we recommend exploring the possibility of integrating financial literacy programming into city-supported scholarship initiatives.

So, for example, uh this could include requiring scholarship recipients to either meet with a financial counselor or complete some sort of financial literacy programming.

We also recommend uh trying to increase the presence of financial literacy counselors through the financial empowerment center at local colleges and universities.

I'd also like to add um another way of achieving this goal is trying to explore uh establishing public-private partnerships that support innovative financial literacy initiatives for students.

And Victoria here is going to present the next couple recommendations.

So for the third recommendation, um, social media and logo.

We're committed to working closely with DHS communications team on opportunities to enhance outreach and digital presence through COSA and DHS social media channels to support resource awareness efforts.

We also recommend for number four, the continued advocacy for improving awareness of affordable child care services for student parents.

This could include expanding eligible criteria of already existing child care support resources and encouraging on-campus child care services and student parent support initiatives throughout the local higher education institutions.

Finally, while the 2025 higher education student survey provide valuable insight into barriers impacting college persistence and completion, we recognize that this work cannot end with a single survey and plan to continue conducting higher education student surveys focused groups, a broader data collect and broader data collection efforts to further develop the trend analysis.

On behalf of the Higher Education Student Advisory Board, we'd like to thank the members of the Educational Opportunities Committee for your time and willingness to engage in this critical conversation.

We look forward to working alongside city leadership and community partners to evaluate existing resources, identify gaps in support systems, and develop actionable recommendations and policies that meaningfully improve student persistence, college attainment, and long-term economic mobility.

Thank you again for the opportunity to present today, and we'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Well, thank you so much, Victoria and Jonah.

I really appreciate the presentation today and the specific recommendations you also provide.

It's really helpful to kind of see the full context and the data form and then go into the kind of work you've been doing.

And I really appreciate slide number eight in particular, breaking down kind of who's been uh you've been connecting with, who's been talking with you all as well.

I think it's really helpful for us to kind of understand that landscape, you'll touch.

Anyone want to start with the conversation?

My council colleagues?

Councillor Record.

Thank you, and thank you guys both for the presentation you did so well.

Um, starting on slide eight, because that's what um the chair mentioned, and honestly, it's like, first of all, getting this sample size, I think is really great.

I think truly representative.

I'm curious, was it representative by population of each of the universities?

That I'm not too sure.

We'd have to go back to the social and data analysis team.

No worries.

Um, maybe we can take a look at that.

Because I'm, I mean, this is pretty significant.

20% parents with the 83% women doesn't surprise me, but 20% of all of institutions being parents is pretty significant.

And is it that around child care?

And then also a quarter, 26% of students with disabilities is higher than what we normally see in our K-12 student population.

So this was definitely very interesting to see in terms of who is responding to the data, and then going to the slide around 10 of like what are the suggestions that we could focus on.

And it's again so fitting for our conversation because number three is enhanced academic advising, and you mentioned CAFE College on the next side.

And I I think I had a chance to go spend some time over there, and I love the work that they're doing at Cafe College, and that's also something that is potentially on the list for this week.

So it's just it this is making me think that the work that we are doing is at least helping for some folks and really important, at least at the very least.

And also increased financial aid, it's just like scholarship dollars.

So I think we have to continue to figure out how we support that if we want to see retention because that is to your point enrollment.

We're there, we're getting kids enrolled, but we got to get kids and adults enrolled.

Sorry, I'm so K-12, but and also get everybody graduated and get to upskill them.

The last just like thought or question I have, which you guys probably wouldn't be able to answer, but for like daycare services, I wonder if there's any opportunity with our ready-to-work daycare funding to partner for services.

Like what um I know we would started that as a pilot because it was also a barrier for our ready to work program, but I'm curious because I know not everyone is using that funding right now, so I'm just curious if there's an opportunity there.

Um, and then the summer bridge program, the the other thing I was thinking about was we have a high school internship program for high schoolers, but we don't necessarily focus on just the 12th graders that are graduating and trying to maybe even uh increase that program and have more folks like our ambassadors, because my um forgot to give my shout out.

Leo is my representative on the commission, and he's he's been an ambassador for us.

It's going to be his third year now, um, and we love having him, and so I just I know that the programs that we offer at the city are really important, and sometimes those are the ones that are um most questioned.

So they're directly aligned to this uh work though, but thank you for your presentation.

And to your point, um, to your first question about institutional representation.

We had 16 of the San Antonio institutions represented.

Um I don't have the answer to if that was proportional or not.

Um, regarding daycare services, something we did look at um is there's a program called R City Cares, which is emergency child care.

For my understanding, it's about eight weeks.

Um we found it interesting that the eligibility criteria, if you're a part of the City of San Antonio ambassador program, you're eligible for those emergency services.

Um, and the criteria for the ambassador program is um, I believe you have to have two semesters of college under your belt.

Um, so we thought maybe there's an opportunity, for example, if a parent is struggling, uh, taking summer classes, for example, maybe perhaps expand the eligibility criteria there.

Um again, it's not a long-term solution, but for a parent who's in an emergency situation, um, that may be something.

That's a great idea.

I support that.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you so much.

Chair, I can answer the question about the ready to work and child care funding.

So that funding is limited to ready-to-work participants.

However, if students are enrolled in target occupations, they are eligible to enroll and ready to work and receive the funding, the wraparound assistance, including child care.

So, really, it's about maybe cross-populating um the the eligibility criteria with with students that are already enrolled.

I think there's also to add an awareness piece.

Um, a lot of higher education students are unaware of all the great services that you are investing in.

Could I make a comment too?

Can I make a comment?

Also, you guys spoke into a little bit of the financial obstacles for higher education students, and I will say this survey did take place to students for academic year 2024.

A lot has changed uh fundamentally with the way that higher education has been regulated federally, and so a lot of that funding has um decreased.

Any institution which I believe most of the higher education students in San Antonio would consider an HSI, Hispanic serving institution, that term no longer exists, and so a lot of that funding has disappeared.

Um, and anything health related, you would you saw that um programs that were considered professional programs that had an increase in financial aid are now no longer considered professional programs.

So that financial aid has been cut in half.

So where we're looking at the numbers that we took from students from 2024, we do also want to recognize that that has changed significantly as far as funding for students.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Victoria and Jonah for the presentation.

Uh I appreciate your leadership and wanted to thank Stephanie Caracero, who's our district five appointee and also served as our intern for the last several months.

So we've appreciated her debriefing us on the initiatives that you all have been tackling.

Uh, in terms of the attrition risk and the financial challenges, uh, I'm curious to what was uh the most cited challenge.

Was it cost of housing, insurance rates, etc.

etc.?

Um, and then in addition to that with family responsibilities, was is it the cost of child care, caring for an aging parent, caring for a sibling and her child with disabilities?

Uh, I'm curious if uh you all had drop boxes or if there's opportunities to include that in a future survey so that way we can have uh uh more identifiers in terms of what is uh the financial challenge that students are facing.

Yes, so the 2025 higher education survey didn't go that detailed, it wasn't that detailed, but um that's why for recommendation five, we would like to continue to um explore uh more up-to-date surveys and perhaps case studies, or yes.

I appreciate that, and then in terms of the recommendations with the encourage uh students to engage in financial literacy, what do you all envision?

Would that be um information in terms of student loan interest rates, um, how to manage a budget?

What do you envision in terms of financial literacy for students?

I have a lot of things.

So, for example, with the financial empowerment center, um, I called the phone and I asked uh how what kind of community outreach do you all do?

And largely they don't visit any colleges and universities, and I think that's an opportunity.

Another question that I asked is how uh booked are your financial counselors, and they said that they have a lot of availability, which I believe perhaps means it's been underutilized.

Um so I think there's an opportunity.

You know, if we're going to focus on the student recommendations here, to really engage uh students on campuses and again meet them where they're at.

I think that's a really huge thing.

Um again, I want to re reiterate the point that I think there's a lot of city services that are already doing great work, but a lot of higher education students, quite frankly, are just unaware of them, and I think that's an awareness thing that needs to continue.

That's also why one of our recommendations tied to a social media and logo that's targeting uh that demographic to make them aware of these resources so they can utilize them.

I really appreciate that, and that reminds me of uh one of the first youth commission budget town halls in which uh the conversation at the tape was I didn't know parks and or libraries offered additional programming within each of these departments.

Uh so I I think it speaks to what you're highlighting, right?

That there are programs they may be underutilized, and how do we market and or get in the schools uh to share what those resources may be available?

Um lastly, just wanted to highlight what's already been expressed in terms of the access to child care and how we could potentially um one move forward with uh renewing pre-K for SAs initiative, but also how can we expand and uh make uh child care more accessible and affordable to San Antonio residents, uh, because that's uh a very high percentage in terms of child care being a challenge for completing uh higher education, but just appreciate the work that you all have been doing, and of course, providing uh the data in terms of what these barriers may be.

Uh, and I think what's um uh not necessarily what's challenging, right, is academic challenges being at 28 percent, and and to know that financial challenges, mental health challenges, and family responsibilities may be a barrier, right?

Um, and how can we tie those delegate agencies and or highlight rather um to help close those gaps?

But appreciate y'all's work and thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Castillo.

Um, yeah, again, really appreciate the presentation.

Uh, incredible job uh putting this stuff together, presenting it to us today.

Um, I echo a lot of the conversations about my colleagues shared.

I think the only other piece I was gonna add, um on the cafe college point too.

I know their uh the Science Education board is going through their kind of strategic planning process right now and are seeking a lot of ways to figure out how to do some more uh detailed data collection for themselves, make sure that they can articulate um who they're serving and uh make sure that funders and uh even the city understands fully, you know, what the work they're they're doing every single day and who they're serving um and what the success stories are too.

And so I'm again really encouraged by uh slide eight to see the kind of uh diversity and people who responded to that one.

Um and I'm wondering if there's any kind of bridge that y'all can share.

Um maybe we can work out that uh after this meeting.

Um, about how to kind of connect more with uh the board themselves.

Uh someone who just was nearly appointed to it.

I think it'd be interesting to have you all uh connect with them a bit more about kind of what things you hear from students that you are connected with, um, and how maybe they can also be a bit more again, meeting folks on the ground, uh, who they're serving and who don't know about Cafe College and all the kind of things that it does, right?

I think a lot of folks have a perception of that.

They kind of help its own advising, and that's probably it.

There's a lot more to it, right?

And so I think there's uh a lot of opportunities to collaborate there.

Um, and on the point about child care a little bit with Cafe College too, and um ready to work.

I know uh Councilman Messer Gonzalez put forward uh CCR kind of talking about career readiness within cafe college itself, and that's still ongoing in the conversations here at council um and with the board there.

Um but interested in seeing too, right?

If there's any kind of bridging we can do uh or exploring the bridging we can do there with ready to work uh and the central education partnership, can that then provide access to the child care grants uh that regular work provides?

Uh it's very high-level still at the moment, uh, don't have all the details there, but interested in seeing maybe that's something that we can discuss as a counselor at either this committee or another.

Um, yeah, just kind of the overlap there.

Uh we know child care is a critical thing here, and so again, I want to echo Councilman Castillo's point about pre-K4SA too.

What kind of partnerships can we do there?

Uh with some of our campuses uh through potentially this is just me hoping and wishing and dreaming, um providing child care on site in some way.

Um, wondering what that collaboration could look like.

Um I think those are all the main things.

Again, appreciate all the details here.

Oh, um I don't stick my nose too much into this, I guess, but um Melody, it's uh is it possible for DHS to provide a website for the higher education supervisory board, like a direct web page on the DHS website?

So I don't know if that's something y'all are interested in, but it's sure.

And in working with um ITSD and CE, they're trying to go in the other direction because the city has so many off uh sanantonia.gov websites.

The practice right now is to reduce that and link to the websites that we have, you know, the the dot gov website.

And it's the same way with the logos, the branding has been the quattrofoil, and what we're doing is looking at a way to use the quattrofoil, but have higher education board separately.

Yeah, and I guess uh not necessarily an offshoot one, but one that's within the actual DHS website itself.

I know I think the youth commission has one within the boards of commissioned one, and so I'd be interested to see if we could have something similar for higher education.

That way they can provide some of those resources on on our San Antonio.gov website.

That might not like a whole separate thing.

Because yeah, I absolutely agree with your point.

No need to keep reinventing wheels outside of this.

Um, so we'll we'll work on that.

It would it would most likely be a link.

Well, a page from the DHS website.

Okay, is what we're proposing.

Yeah, got it.

Well, thank you, that's helpful.

Um, and then of course I know social media is a big part of that too, right?

And so interesting in seeing what that kind of work goes on there.

Um I know it can be a little challenging with that, so I'm not gonna get too much into it, but I think definitely critical for the population we're talking about, right?

Um I think anyone in our age range, frankly, uh wants to see the social media page first before we go to anything else, and even the website secondary to figure out well, what's the what's the vibe here?

Is this something that's actually gonna reach me and I'm gonna connect with, or is it gonna be a little funky and not what I'm looking for?

Um, before I go into the actual website and maybe sign up for something.

Um so I think that'd be interesting to see how we can continue to do that and again meet our our youth uh at every level where they're at.

Um those are all my things.

Any last comments from y'all that you want to share with us about things that higher education student advisory board uh is working on, or things that you the highest hopes and dreams that we can be helpful with.

We're doing my three hours since you're on all.

We have um divided up into three subcommittees that are all working on different initiatives, and each one has a s a strategic goal within each pillar.

Uh pillar one is on gathering information from all the higher education institutions, including employees and student representatives, so that we can collaborate on um surveys that go out, events that happen, that type of thing.

The second pillar is our is our communications plan.

How do we get the word out there on services that do relate to these obstacles that hot that higher education students are encountering?

And then the third subcommittee is based on research.

So now that we have the numbers providing a list of resources that we can talk to higher education students about.

So we're really excited with that work.

And I've served on many um committees and boards, and this one um this one that I've worked on in the last six months has been outstanding.

I love each and every member.

They're highly invested and they're willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work.

That's great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you all so much again for the presentation.

I appreciate y'all.

And Jenna, appreciate seeing you also last night at the Northside ISD's uh bond committee conversation.

Incredible folks we have appointed to many of these boards who are always engaged beyond this work.

So at 11 18 a.m., we will uh conclude the education opportunities committee meeting today.

Thank you all.