XML : SSIS - XML Validation Error - "Expected schema root"

I have an XML Task within an SSIS package that is giving me the following error when run:

  Error: 0xC002F304 at XML Task, XML Task: An error occurred with the following error message: "Expected schema root. Make sure the root element is <schema> and the namespace is 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' for an XSD schema or 'urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-data' for an XDR schema.".    

The beginning of the XSD document looks like this (reformatted to fit better here - in the actual XSD this is all one line):

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>      <xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"                  targetNamespace="http://path.to.namespace.com"                  xmlns="http://path.to.namespace.com"                  elementFormDefault="qualified">    

I've run the XSD/XML combo through a few online validators and it seems to be just fine. I've even taken out all file connections and done Direct Input for both the XML and XSD on the task to rule out any file permissions - exact same error.

I don't have a ton of experience with XML/XSD, and the XSD was generated by a third party vendor.

Is there anything that I'm just totally missing here?