Okay.

Maybe we're here to talk about say yes.

Go right ahead, please.

Thank you.

Thank you for uh your time.

Appreciate being here.

Um so uh each of you have a packet.

Um it's uh our our report card, our annual report card every year we re uh report on how well the scholarships performed.

Um I also included a few additional um items in your packet.

That is our uh we commissioned um a student agency at Cornell University called uh Cornell Data Strategy to do a rate of return for us.

Um and then there's also a packet uh last year, the past two years I've talked about um a network called the Syracuse College Attainment Network that we um have been working with other agencies to develop, and so there's a packet on that too.

So I'll start with the report card.

Um it's uh pretty much self-explanatory, but um in total uh last year we awarded over a million dollars.

Uh you'll see that on the left-hand side, we have the choice grants that go to students that attend private colleges.

Uh we have the opportunity grants that go to students that attend public colleges and have enough federal and state aid to cover tuition.

So their Pell Grant and their TAP grant combined covers tuition at a at a SUNY school.

And in those cases, they get an additional three thousand dollars from say yes to help cover with room and board or fees or anything like that.

And that also extends to students that decide to get an apartment and in room together together to bring the cost down.

All they have to do for us is provide proof of a lease.

Um and then we have the tuition grants um that's uh just under $500,000.

And then you'll see there under uh external scholarships and grant aid, um, we were able to leverage $15.6 million dollars, and that includes institutional aid uh from private colleges and the arrangement that we have with them in our agreements, and also um uh additional aid that we do not count towards the cost of attendance, so that would be like supplemental educational opportunity grant, uh SUNY tuition credits, um other merit scholarships, outside scholarships, and things of that nature.

Um so speaking of external scholarships, yes.

Um we we spoke earlier about SUNY system being all of it being free.

Yep.

Uh Syracuse University has a private college having an agreement with you guys.

And it's also is it a hundred percent?

That's right.

Uh the the tuition is guaranteed using the last dollar model.

So students do have to complete a FASF application, they do have to complete TAP.

If they're getting grants uh from the state of the feds, those get applied in a Syracuse University covers the rest of tuition.

What about the loan?

What about the loan part?

Loans are not included in the calculation.

So with that with that with uh uh partners like Syracuse University.

What are other uh what is what's the list of private schools that are 100% committed?

Do you have that list at all?

Uh I don't have the list on me, but there are um uh mo more than 60 of them nationwide that we have this agreement with.

Um what I will temper that with is that tuition does not include the whole kit and caboodle.

It's not the cost of attendance.

So sometimes we do a lot of education with students and families on the tuition is covered, but if you want to live on campus and eat campus food and utilize campus equipment and everything, that's not part of it part of the factory makes sense.

Um you cover the student for the four years of their bachelor's.

Yes.

At the same rate every year.

Yes.

Well, well, well, it was on year one would carry on.

Yeah, I mean if if it so we guarantee the tuition, uh, I wouldn't necessarily say the same rate because colleges uh get more expensive over time.

But we we make sure the tuition is covered for them.

Um when you say that it's not full tuition, it's whatever they don't get from their tuition is uh tuition is guaranteed, but it's it's the balance on tuition after they if they're eligible for federal aid and state.

Yes, yes.

Almost every other avenue.

We do not look at third party scholarships.

So uh if they if a student got the uh counselor uh troll scholarship for excellence, that does not get considered a million dollar, I can give a million dollars.

I can give a million dollars.

And you wouldn't have been looking at Dr.

Cholma Joke scholarship funds.

Million dollars is that does not get considered in our in our calculation.

Um the the only thing that we the uh uh I would say the one thing with our tuition scholarships is um uh if a student is getting a very generous financial aid packet and it exceeds the cost of attendance, um we you know our scholarships are not meant to supplement income, they're they're meant to for educational purposes, but otherwise, yeah, uh would love to talk to you about a million.

That's wonderful.

And and uh Mr.

Turner, I I I feel like I don't know, I know the the cost of college education is is crazy.

It's it's rising every year.

Crazy.

Um and I don't know if our kids know about the potential of say yes, and I don't know if they're how it is communicated to them that this is a resource that for some of us that went to college and we have loans, you know.

And we we we we wish that say yes was there years ago when we got out of city school district, you know.

So something that we have done um actually we started last year if is we've um augmented our communication strategy.

We've been trying to communicate directly to students, and what we found, counselor, is that it's a moving target.

So like the apparatuses that we use to try and reach students are Facebook and Instagram.

High school students still use Facebook and Instagram, those are for dinosaurs.

We also try to use LinkedIn.

Um and then also what we learned is that you know, uh reaching students in high school, um they don't know what they don't know.

Now let me ask you.

So what what but what we did do is um we the way we augmented our communication was to really try to reach parents and influencers.

So we've you know what I mean, uh uh nuanced those messages so that parents are getting the information, so that high school counselors, anybody in the community is getting that information, and we know that influencers um have better relationships and more hand-to-hand contact, and so they're more readily able to communicate the importance and the the value of the scholarships to students.

With that, with that, uh is there a communication with the entire district around, especially when the kids first enter high school, freshman year.

That's orientation.

That's orientation, that's exposure to the resources that the district have.

Is there an effort within that folder that the kids get during orientation that there is say yes information in that folder and that there is a presentation to them that this is you know, high school is it's is part of the process, but really you you're going somewhere, and that going somewhere, say yes is here to really help you in that next next life that you want to pursue.

Yes, yes, there is, and uh um some of the um K-8 schools and other schools have like an orientation for students to choose which high school they want to go to.

We've participated in those.

We've we've also participated in uh say yes information sessions hosted by the district.

We tried to host those, um, but the district has much, they have broader reach with their students.

So when they set those up for us, we've seen our attendance uh skyrocket.

Um and something that we are trying to do, we had our first alumni lunch last year, and we want that we want to build that up and we want that to grow legs.

Um what we found is when we utilize say yes alum, they still they they're closer in age to high school students, they still know a lot of them, and there's a different, you know, uh I I don't know, maybe students respond to them differently than they respond to us adults.

And so um we're we're really trying to grow that part of our communication strategy is to um leverage say yes alum on the message and the importance of scholarships, not only just the financial part, but the importance in the lessons and everything learned from just going to college and what you gain from that.

And I have two, I have two more questions and then I'll I'll let the other counselors go.

The other question is so with that effort, what's what's how what's the gap, you know, in terms of say 78% of high school, 72% of high school students are graduating from high school, right?

Right.

Out of that 72, maybe about 50 plus 50% of them are going to college.

Out of that 50%, how many apply to say yes?

Yes, yes.

40% and 78 goes to college.

Yep.

So you'll see I'll just go down in the second line.

40% of the class of 2025 completed a CAS application.

Um the whole class did not matriculate from high school to college.

You'll see it right underneath the 2024, 225 awards.

Um so uh of the students that matriculated from high school to college, it's more around, and I should put this graphic on there.

The the number of students that completed the application is closer to 89%, it's like 88.1%.

Um, and you know, not every student goes to a say yes college, so there, you know, there's a gap right there.

Um we also you'll see underneath that we want students to utilize all the resources that we have, and the main lever for this is to uh leverage federal and state funds.

So uh we're doing the best we can to make sure students utilize all the resources.

You'll see right underneath that 98% of our students completed a FAFSA application, but there's still a gap with TAP.

And um uh three years ago when the feds released um the new FAFSA application.

Prior to that, students could complete a FAFSA application and and click a link and all their information would load up to a TAP application and they can complete it all in one setting.

The 94% is full-time for students enroll full-time.

No, they don't have uh outside jobs or anything like that.

Well, we don't know if they're they have outside jobs, uh, but but yeah, 94% of them enroll full time.

The ones that are part-time, uh we could we could probably get more information from them.

Well, I mean, you don't really have to.

It's I was wondering does it make an impact if the student is earning money, you know, if they if they get your your grants to support their their academic careers, the fact that they're earning a salary, I mean, does it pay back the money you give them?

Yeah, uh well, I could tell you for sure that at OCC there's a large number of students that are working.

I don't know if they're working full time, I don't have that data.

Um, but they uh uh persist at higher rates than students that are not receiving say yes.

So um, you know, I I can't really, we don't have enough data to say if working is impacting them, but we do have enough data to say students that receive a say yes award um go from their first year to the second year at higher rating.

Or no.

They don't.

I mean, they do the FASFA application and then the the college, we get that information from the college.

The student signs a purple waiver, and then the college lets us know.

So they don't necessarily have to tell us if they have a job or not.

Okay.

That was my question.

Okay, okay.

Does anyone the children do they work in the school district, maybe part-time?

Do it with the students, yeah, with say yes.

Any students like work part-time, maybe after school, in the school and doing any position where they could get paid uh a stipend or something?

Uh well, they can.

Um, we do know that there's students um that participate in internships throughout the year and over the summer.

Uh, we've partnered with Syracuse University to provide, well, Syracuse University by way of CNY works to provide internships on campus over the summer.

Yes.

Um, and uh you'll see in the uh in the packet, I also have the Syracuse College Attainment Network stuff.

There's some opportunities there that we offer the students too.

Thank you.

The FAFSA and the TAP are consistent in in the support, financial support, or ETC decreasing, what's happening with that?

Well, well, FAFSA um has uh with the new FAFSA application one, it is much more easier for students to complete that because they don't have to bring their W-2s and all this information in this new system.

Um the um this the education department uploads their information from the IRS using their federal tax information.

It's called FTI.

So when the student goes in and they fill out the application with their parent, parent doesn't need all that stuff.

It automatically uploads into the into the student's application.

So they're seeing that, and they've augmented their uh formula so that more students are receiving more aid.

The feds haven't necessarily increased the federal Pell Grant, but they've they've augmented the formula so that really middle income students uh are not getting squeezed out.

The students that are needy are probably gonna get a maximum federal appell grant and tab grant.

But it's not what does that look like?

What's maximum?

Maximum federal appell grant is $7,935 a year.

That covers tuition at SUNY schools.

The tuition at SUNY's is $7,070.

And it's been static for the last uh five years, they haven't raised it.

Um my feeling is that uh the SUNY system is gonna start to raise the tuition rates probably next year.

Uh but the fast, but the federal Pell Grant is still gonna cover that.

That's income-based too, right?

Uh yes, yes, it's uh you do it, and then based on your income, you're eligible for whatever the federal Pell grant is.

Now I I I want to before you move forward, what about school like Steam, considering it's new?

Yes work that out.

Yep, yep.

So we've had numerous conversations about STEAM.

Uh say yes students, students that attend the STEAM school are eligible for say yes, the tuition uh benefit if they are residents of the city.

So residency.

Yeah, yeah, they have to be residents of the city.

Our our council grappled with that heavily, and um where the council shook out is that the when the scholarship was designed and there was the residency requirement, that requirement was meant to encourage folks to move back into the city to see the value on the scholarship that they would get.

So we grappled over that over a number of meetings, and and we kept that requirement there.

Also, um we did an impact analysis on opening this thing up to the entire county, and we would have to raise close to a billion dollars to fully endow something that would support the whole entire county.

Uh so yes, Steam School students are eligible, but they have to be residents of the city of Syracuse.

Okay, makes sense.

So is it best to qualify you do you apply while you're in your junior year, or they have to be a senior?

They have to be a senior, they have to be a senior.

Um we encourage students, our application opens up in January.

Uh, we encourage students to go in in January and tell us all the schools they applied to because we can communicate with these schools.

They often want to know who say yes students are.

Not that it makes a difference in their admissions process, but uh they like to know, uh, especially the SUNY's, they like to know who's gonna be coming with money.

But the private schools like to know too.

And so um, we encourage them to do that, and then at the end of the year, the students have to let us know which school that they're gonna attend.

But what about kids that move into the city?

Maybe they came from with family members outside, and they came here on sophomore junior year.

Okay, okay.

They qualify at all?

They so if they come in at their sophomore year, they qualify because the the required the criteria says they have to be enrolled three continuous years.

Oh if they come their junior year, they don't meet the criteria, but they can appeal, and it just depends.

So the criteria was put in place to guard against abuse, right?

So we don't want students going to let's say um uh Fayetteville Manly is for ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade, and then oh, I'm gonna use this tuition guarantee and transfer to Nottingham in their 12th grade year.

Uh but students that let's say a student moved here from Texas due to whatever, or you know, something like that.

We don't assume that the student in Texas found out about the say yes scholarship and said, we're gonna move there to take advantage of it.

So those those guardrails are really to just protect against abuses.

But if there's a student that's outside of that, they can appeal.

We walk them through what we need to see in the appeal, um, and then the appeal gets reviewed and either it's approved or denied.

Thank you.

All right.

Um so um you you could, you know, the rest is kind of self-explanatory.

You can see our enrollment rates at uh public and private schools, two-year versus four-year schools.

Um our first year to second year persistence rate is slightly lower than the national average.

And that rate that you see there at the bottom is uh not the most current, it's not for the 24-25 year.

We were unable to get um uh national student clearinghouse data.

Uh but our students are receiving that support, and then you see the high school graduation rates.

Uh what I also included was the impact report, and this was really, really cool.

We worked with Cornell Data Strategy over the course of a year.

Um, and they we provided them a lot of data and they did an analysis and then we reviewed it, and we also had our own consultant kind of go over it.

Um, but uh what you see at the bottom there of this sheet is a 16% return on community investment.

So um the Cornell Data Strategy looked at the median income in the city of Syracuse.

They looked at degrees across uh degree type, and for those that earn uh four-year degree, they're entering into an income path that is 16 times per that's much higher than the median income that they enter college with.

So um we really really proud about that.

Um, and um we learned in uh contacting our alumni that they're all over the place.

Uh there's alumni in hospitals.

There's actually this year, two C students were uh were awarded full medical scholarships at SUNY Upstate.

Oh wow.

Um, yeah, we're very proud about that.

And there's teachers in Syracuse City School District, there's um people in engineering at SRC and Lockheed Martin.

Um there are you know, I mean, pretty much every sector you could think of, there's probably a CS alum in that sector doing really good work.

So an alarm man?

Yeah.

Nice.

I have a question.

I want to ask you right here.

I like to ask you about the graduation rates.

Okay.

And I'm looking at Asian Pacific Islanders, 79%.

So I would consider talking about maybe those who are of Vietnamese.

Then I look at black, 72% white central.

So when you look at black, are you including those who came from Africa?

From uh I you just going like African Americans.

Well, well, I so um the the state measures that, and it's really how the students and the family identify.

I see.

Okay.

So they they could be included in that, but but um that is a is a designation that's the students and the families.

I think more than um more than anything, they don't look at the ethnicity or country or origin.

Okay, none of that.

They just look at the color.

Okay.

That's it.

Which is which is sometime is it's it's can do what it do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

That's true.

So in genius, it's only 58% by the state.

Do you have an opinion or well?

Um the students that identify as indigenous is is a very small number.

So you see 58%, but when we look at that in real numbers, it's probably you know, it's different when you look at real numbers.

Okay.

Um, and um, you know, there's there's work to be done there, I think.

There's a couple of programs, especially for native indigenous people that are in place, but it's not district wide.

Like I know at Salem High, there's a program.

Um at a number of schools, is there's there's specific programs for them.

Uh and um, you know, there's so a lot of these kids do they all live in the city or live in uh outside the city?

They they live in the city, they live in the city for for native indigenous folks.

There's six degrees of separation.

So they are city residents and they go to Syracuse City Schools, but they I'm sure have relatives that live in the nation or you know what I mean?

Yeah, I get it.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, and so the last thing is uh the Syracuse College Attainment Network, and we're really really proud of this work.

Um so when we came together, there's approximately seven or eight agencies that are in this network, and um you all know this, you know this.

We're we're you know, we all many of us know each other and we do what we can on the on behalf of students, but we wanted to be more intentional about combining our efforts, right?

And so uh we came together to really look at what we do, learn more about each other, align ourselves in a way so that we're not competing against each other or bouncing off each other, but we're really um integrated in our approach and then uh deploying all the resources that are that are available to students to them.

So um, you know, the front page has uh, you know, scan exists to align system so students can more easily access and persist and succeed.

Um what the what the network consists of uh and that stuff, but if you flip to the second page, what we're really proud of is in year one, we really wanted to build the foundation, right?

So that was um um our brand, our mission, our vision, our proposition statement, and then in year two working with the equitable foundation, we made a concerted effort to um have as many students in our program complete an application for their equitable excellence scholarship.

And what we found and what what happened in that year was there's about 80 scholarships available nationwide to students, and 15 of those students came from the Syracuse City School District, and um the Equitable Excellence Scholarship is five thousand dollars a year, a total value on that is three hundred thousand dollars uh for Syracuse City School District students in year two.

We made this effort again, and uh in year two, twenty students from the Syracuse City School District were selected for the scholarship on a total value of four hundred thousand dollars.

So we're really really proud about that.

And then the the benefits that uh the network brings to the organizations are we were able to go to uh the Hill and advocate for federal aid uh year one we took two students, year two we took five.

We we met with uh Congress can Congressman Manion's office and Senator Schumer's office and Senator Gillibrand's office to advocate for federal aid, um, and they're very receptive to that.

Uh all of the members in the network, which include um on point for college, hillside work scholarship, Erie 21 step uh step at Syracuse University and Syracuse University College of Professional Studies and Lemoine College Upper Bound, um, are able to attend a conference and have their registration covered.

Um another one of the benefits is really taking a look at data, deep rich data.

And so we are um uh analyzing matriculation rates for students across the entire district, and then we're aggregating that by students that receive a CAS award, students that are in a uh scan member program, and then students that are receiving a CAS award and in scan member programs, and it should come as no surprise that students that are receiving a CS award and in scan member programs persist at almost 100%.

So if they're getting support from CAS and they're in on point for college, or they were at Hillside Work Scholarship or one of those, uh they're almost guaranteed to go from their first year to their second year.

And their graduation rates are like in the 70s.

I can't remember the exact number, but they graduate at high rates too.

Also, uh you'll see on that back page say yes as an effort to support the network.

Students that are in scan member um programs receive a $500 book voucher.

So if a student is uh in uh Lemoine College Upward Bound, they not only get the CS award if they're if they're eligible for a CS award, they will additionally get a $500 book voucher that they can use.

Uh yes, a year, a year.

If a student starts, let's say they're gonna do a bachelor's, and for whatever reason they need to stop, let's say for one year or a semester or something like that, are they can they come back?

Yes.

So there's a couple of things.

Um we have a gap year policy, and the gap year policy, if a student graduating from high school isn't quite sure that they want to go to college, they can take a gap.

Uh also in the gap year policy, if the student needs to take a semester or two semesters off a year, they can do that.

Um if it if they need to take more than two semesters off, um they they're gonna have to appeal to regain eligibility.

But you know, the oftentimes those appeals are accepted.

Um the only time that type of appeal wouldn't be accepted is if a student just kind of disappeared.

Yes.

I'm off any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

I call this meeting adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.