Common Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Councelor Marty Nav, I'm joined by comic council president Rita Penna, councelor Lars Choke. Okay. May we're here to talk about say yes and go right ahead please.

Uh 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 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 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 PEL grant and their TAP grant combined covers tuition at a at a Sunni school. And th in those cases, they get an additional $3,000 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 and 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

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. That would be like supplemental educational opportunity grant, uh, Sunni tuition credits, um, other merit scholarships, outside scholarships, and things of that nature. Um, so, so speaking of external scholarships, um, you we we spoke earlier about Sunni system being all of it being free. Yep.

Uh, Syracuse University as a private college having an agreement with you guys and it's also is it 100% as well? Uh the tuition is guaranteed using the last dollar model. So students do have to complete a fast application. They do have to complete TAP. If they're getting grants uh from the state or the feds, those get applied and then Syracuse University covers the rest of tuition. What about the loan? What about the loan part? Do they loans are not included in the calculation? Good. So with that with that with uh partners like Syracuse University, what other uh what's 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 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 kitten kaboodleoodle. 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 part of the fact. It makes sense. Makes sense. Um, okay. So, you cover the student for the four years of their bachelor's. Yes. at the same rate every year. Yes. Well, well, well,

whatever was built on year one would carry on. Yeah. I mean, if if it so we guarantee the tuition, 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, so when you say that it's not full tuition, it's whatever they don't get from Right. Right. Right. Tu tuition is uh tuition is guaranteed but it's it's the balance on tuition after they if they're eligible for federal aid almost every other avenue.

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 counselor troll scholarship for excellence that does not get considered. So a million dollar I can get a million and you wouldn't have been looking Dr. Choke scholarship fund. Yes, that does not get considered in our in our calculations. Um uh 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 to supplement income. They're they're meant to for educational purposes, but otherwise, yeah, would love to talk to you about a million. That's wonderful. All right.

And and Mr. Turner, I I I feel like I don't know. I know the the cost of college education is is crazy. It's is 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 how it is communicated to them that this this is a resource that for some of us that went to college and we have loans, you know, we we we we wish that say yes

was there years ago when we got out of out of city school district, you know. So, so something that we have done um actually we started last year is 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. Mhm. 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 this.

So but 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 is there a communication with the entire district around especially when kids first enter high school freshman year there's orient there'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 is is is 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 K8 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 a 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 says 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 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 says alum on the message and the importance of scholarships, not only just the financial part, but the importance and the lessons and everything learned from just going to college and what you gain from that.

And I have two I have two more question and then I'll I'll let let the other counselors go. The the other question is so with that effort what's what's what's how what's what's the gap you know in terms of say 78% of high 72% of high school student are graduating from high school. Mhm. Right. Out of that 72 maybe about 50 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 um um I'll just go down in the second line. 40% of the class of 2025 completed a application. Um the whole class did not metriculate from high school to college. You'll see it right underneath um the 2024 2025 awards. Um, so, uh, of the students that metriculated 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 whatever percent. Um, and you know, not every student goes to a SAS college. So, there, you know, there's a gap right there. Um and uh 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 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 FASA application,

but there's still a gap with TAP. And um uh 3 years ago when the feds released um the new FA 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 could complete it all in one setting. The 94% is full-time, full students enroll full-time. Uh there are college they don't have 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 we could probably get more information from them.

Well, I mean, you don't really have to. It's I was wondering does 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 impact the money you give them?

Yeah. Uh, well, I could tell you for sure that at OC 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 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 says award um go from their first year to second year higher rate to you that they have an income or no,

they don't. I mean, they do the fast application and then 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 any of the children do they work in the school district? Maybe part-time. Do do students? Yeah, I would say asked. Does any students like work part-time maybe after school in the school and doing any position where they could get paid uh a stipen or? 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 Scholar Attainment Network stuff. There's some opportunities there that we offer the students too. Thank you. Do the FASA and the TAB um are consistent in in the support financial support or is is it decreasing? What's happening with that?

Well well FASA um has uh with the new FASA application one it is much more easier for students to complete that because they don't have to bring their W2s 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 PEL grant, but they've they've augmented the formula so that really middle income students are not getting squeezed out. The students that are needy are probably going to get a a maximum federal PEL grant and TAP grant. Um

what is that? What does that look like? What's maximum? Uh maximum federal PEL grant is $7,935 a year. A year. Uh that covers tuition at Sunni schools. The tuition at Sunnis is 7,70 bucks and it's been static for the last uh 5 years. They haven't raised it. Um my feeling is that uh the Sunni system is going to start to raise the tuition rates. Um um probably next year. Uh but the fast but the the federal PEL grant is still going to 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 PEL grant is. Now I I I want to before you move forward, what about school like steam considering it's new? How does say 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 says 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 was meant to encourage folks to move back into the city

to see the value on the scholarship that they would get. So, um, 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 so yes, steam school students are eligible, but they have to be residents of of the city of Syracuse. Okay, makes sense. So, is it best do I do 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 says students are. Not that it makes a difference in their admissions process, but uh they like to know uh especially the Sunnis, they like to know who's going to 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 going to attend.

But what about kids that move into the city? Maybe they came from fa with family members outside and they came around sophomore junior year. Okay. Okay. Can they qualify at all or they So if they come in at their sophomore year, they qualify because the the require the criteria says they have to be enrolled three continuous years.

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, Fyville Manley for 9th, 10th, 11th grade, and then, oh, I'm going to use this tuition guarantee and transfer to Nottingham in her 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 going to move there to take advantage of it." So those those guard rails 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. Okay. Okay. 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 2425 year. We were unable to get um uh national student clearing house 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 a 4-year degree, they're entering into um an income path that is 16 times per that's much higher than the median income that they entered college with. So, um 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 says students were were awarded full medical scholarships at Sunni Upstate.

Oh wow. Um yeah, we're very proud about that. And there there's teachers um the Syracuse City School District. There's um people in engineering at SRC and Loheed Martin. Um, there are, you know, I mean, pretty much every sector you could think of, there's probably a says alum in that sector doing really good work. Oh, look at that. Man, my goodness. Nice. I have a question. I want to ask you right here. I'd like to ask you about the graduation rates, okay?

And I'm looking at AsianPacific Islander 79%. So I would consider talking about maybe those who are uh Vietnamese. Then I look at black 72% white cent. So when you look at black are you including those who came from Africa from uh I are you just going like Africanameans? 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, so they they could be included in that but but um that is a is a designation that the students and the families

I think I think more than um more than anything they don't look at the ethnicity or country of origin none of that they just look at the color okay that's it which is which is sometime is it's it's can can do what it do but yeah they could even be Latinos. That's true. So color ingenious is 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 is probably you know it's different when you look at real numbers. Okay. Um and um 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 districtwide. Like I know at Salem High there's a program um at at a number of schools there's there's specific programs for them. Uh and um you know there

so a lot of these kids do they all live in the city or live in the 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 um 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 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 the 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 $5,000 a year. A total value on that is $300,000 uh for Syracuse City School District

students. In year two, we made this effort again. And uh in year two, 20 students from the Syracuse City School District were selected for the scholarship on a total value of $400,000. So we're really really proud about that. And then the 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 Congressman Manion's office and Senator Schumer's office and Senator Gillibrand's office to advocate for federal aid. Um and they were very receptive to that. uh all of the members in the network which include um onpoint for college hillside work scholarship Erie 21 step uh step at Syracuse University and Syracuse University College of Professional Studies and Le Moy College Upperbound um are able to attend a conference and have their registration covered. Um uh another one of the benefits is really taking a look at data deep rich data and so we are um uh analyzing metriculation rates for students across the entire district and then we're aggregating that by students that receive award, students that are in a a scan member program and then students that are receiving award and in scan member programs. And it should come as no surprise that students that are receiving a SAS award and in scan member programs persist at almost 100%. So there if they're getting support from say yes and they're in on point for college a 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, um say yes is 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 Le Moy College Upwardbound, they not only get the SES award, if they're if they're eligible for 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 going to 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. In 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 going to have to appeal to regain eligibility. But, you know, oftent times those appeals are accepted. Um, the the only time that type of appeal wouldn't be accepted is if a student just kind of disappeared.

Yes. I'm all set. I'm all set. Any questions? Exciting. Thank you. This is really good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time. You've grown a lot since last year we had this meeting. I call this meeting a German. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Enjoy.