PTO Meeting Notes 9.8.2026

Meeting Attendees: Katie Ayers, Ashley Walters, Amy Cowan, Lisa Freidman, Nick Bertram, Norberto Viamonte, Todd Harris, Katie Calhoun, Ashley Davis, Erin Infield, Arin Waechter, Mohmad Kahl, Miriam Mihok-Hopkin, Jessica Wakely, Jessica Moore, John Rodriguez, James Nelson, Katie Pinkley, TR Snyder, Naveeu Bollineui, Samantha Althouse, Dr. Jen Schwanke, Brian Kern


Call Meeting to Order: Katie Ayers 6:30
Introduce Guests – Dr. Swanke and Mrs. Althouse, Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent here to introduce themselves and showing their “All In” going to every PTO meeting and every building and a chance to introduce themselves.

Dr. Jen Schwanke, Superintendent– 28 years in education, teacher asst principal, principal, deputy superintendent and now superintendent.
Loves OSE, it’s such a strong community, parents love the school, lots of teaching and learning, and lovely place for kids to attend.

Samantha Althouse, Deputy Superintendent – Started 2004 in Dublin at Davis for 10 years, Chapman for 1 year, Hilliard 7 years and back at Dublin for 4 years. Served as a math teacher, principal, asst principal.
We want to stay connected to the student experience, easy to get immersed in admin, we want to go to a school every single Friday and stay connected.

Brian Kern, District treasurer – Has served in this position since 2016 and been off and on with Dublin since 2003.
Nick and Erin are always 1st phone call if we need something that teachers can’t address, lots going on with public education and a lot about how the state fund school. 85% funded by local taxes. Teachers are what keep this place going!

Open up to questions
Q - Redistricting withing the district. Here at Olde Sawmill we most likely won’t get redistricted, but we do hear comments such as “Scioto is the new Columbus City high school. What do you plan to do to ensure that Scioto and our schools are just as good as Jerome and Coffman?
A (Dr. Schwanke)
We are the wrong people to come at like that we were just as disturbed at comments “Columbus school”. The teachers and families here are extraordinary. We have over 17,000 students in district. And there are untruths or misunderstandings that create a snow ball effect. The best way for us to respond is to not engage, we are so large are buildings are different, the demographics are different we provide the staffing that is needed to support the student, such as English language or literacy support needs that each population has.  We support that. Scioto is 2nd to none with the facilities brand new; hvac with the newly opened addition, athletic facilities are wonderful. A good example of how we adjust for what each school needs is about 5 years ago we staffed admin based on enrollment. We have now moved to a rubric that included things like esl, behaviors, academics, etc. And this gives kids who need more support the admin they need. OSE has different needs, Davis has different needs and you’ll see different support where it’s needed.
Q (Follow up) – We have had such an amazing experience at OSE and Davis and want that to continue.
A (Dr. Schwanke) Lots of people at board meetings shared their experience about not wanting to be moved, and lots of people from Scioto spoke up about how great their experiences has been. I think maybe people were more resistance to change and didn’t want to change schools. We have empathy for that it will take time, but they will love it. We have also added dean of students at Scioto as added admin support.
Q- People say things on Facebook that aren’t true, but it’s also the case that these people are voters - is there a plan to keep it from becoming true?
A (Dr. Schwanke) - We say please don’t go to fb for your news, go to our website, faqs, ways to contact people. People know fb isn’t reliable but they still go there and we can’t go to fb and fight back or feed the fire,
Q, follow-up- Right but if the perception is that these are the lesser schools they can vote for school board that can make it lesser schools.
A (Dr. Schwanke) We have people on the board who represent this portion of the district and we need strong candidates who represent this side of the district. The board has had some change over and we give them the info and facts. We haven’t had anyone on the board who have tried to implement a political agenda.
Dr. Schwanke – Brian’s job is to make sure the books are balanced.
Brian- Our community needs to talk about school funding moving forward, we are holding a retreat oct 1st with board about funding. Our funding is primarily property taxes. We have had clean audits and are AAA rated. At the end of day, the State considers us a rich district, so we are on our own for the most part. There is a report called the cup report- and it essentially shows how much of your state income dollars come back to the district. We get about 12 13 cents on the dollar, and the rest goes to other parts of the state. State funding is lacking, as its pushed into vouchers and private schools. Down from 47% to 32% statewide. We have not joined the voucher lawsuit, and we have reasons for that. The lawsuit would cost about 2 dollars per kid to join and the voucher system has not been declared unconstitutional. We don’t want to throw money into something with an unknown outcome. Property tax is the primary form of funding, as property values rise the levy rate goes down the effective millage rate goes down. At the retreat we will talk about new proposals, maybe asking for more money from the community, maybe earned income tax, which would be only on w2 wages, not retirement, exploring that idea as well as  looking at what reductions look like, efficiencies. We have had the same staffing level for the past 4 years even with growing enrollment. Inflation has had a significant effect on the budget. We built Depp and Hopewell in 2020 for a cost of 25 million. Bishop was builit in 2024 for 50 million, so inflation is a big problem.
Thanks so much for letting us join and if you need anything call Nick.
​
Approval of Minutes –minutes are posted on the website, Katie motions to approve, Jessica seconds motion passed.
Principal’s Report – Nick Bertrams
                So thankful that everyone came out tonight! Keep coming.

• Great start to the year!
  • Thanks to PTO for the support to start the year off, back to school social, lunch for teachers,
• Building Updates
  • New staff and students -Erin Friedman is our new Assistant Principal. We had an Asst. hired at end of year and she moved to a new school; we moved to bring Erin in quickly. She came to us from Riverside and we are happy to have her. We have 4-5 new staff throughout the building new students. We also have 47 new students in grades 1-5, along with 55-60 kindergarteners which is about 25% of the building new to school. We had our family groups for the 1st time today, which with all the new students was a bit hectic but everyone figured it out. Some teachers have moved rooms, we no longer have a conference room. We were running out of classroom space; luncheons will be in the staff room it’ll be tight but best for students.
  • New schedule- School starts 5 mins later and ends 5 mins later than last year.
• Expectations
  • Home vs School
    • We have been talking a lot about our public selves and private selves. What is acceptable at home might not be acceptable in public.  We are a family at OSE, teachers are like parents but we may have different expectations than your parents. Nick and Erin went to every classroom last week to talk to students and shared this example, “my parents say I can defend myself if someone hits me. but you can’t just get revenge because someone hit you, where does that cycle end?” Our expectations are based on our clover characteristics and being respectful, kind, and safe.
• Title I Building (All students served)
  • 4 schools in the district are full school title, 2 more are partially funded. OSE is full school.
  • Requirements
    • Annual Meeting
    • Title 1 Compact
  • Building Goal Connection
    • The percentage of students in grades 3-5 scoring a 3 or higher in the evidence and elaboration (adding detail to your writing). Subscore on the Spring OST will increase by 10%, 85% scored the lowest previously.
    • The percentage of students in grade K-2 scoring At or Above Benchmark on the Dibels assessments will increase by 50%
    • The percentage of students in grades 2-5 meeting their Projected Growth Goal from Fall to Spring administration of the MAP assessment will increase by 10% as compared to 2025-26 data, 75% will meet their growth projections.
  • Budget
    • Community Engagement Funds, previously did muffins and math. A k-2 and 3-5 event. Leading up to it kids learn a new math game, then parents come in in the AM and play the game with kid(s) eat muffins and the game goes home with the families.
    • Instructional Supplies Funds buying materials for the school. Books for library are an example. Last year we bought classroom libraries for each grade level one set per grade level, this year we may purchase one for each classroom.
  • Curriculum/Resources
    • Ohio’s Learning Standards
    • Phonics 95 & myView
    • Amplify Desmos & ST Math
  • Assessment used to measure student progress
    • Dibels
    • MAP (Grades 2-5 only)
    • Ohio State Test (Grades 3-5 only)
  • Proficiency Levels
    • Dibels
      • Well below benchmark, Below benchmark, At benchmark , Above benchmark
    • MAP
      • Measures growth and achievement
      • Specific to individual students
    • Ohio State Test (OST)
      • 700 or higher
  • How to be involved: 
    • Participate in decision-making committees, such as PTO, parent advisory committees, and district/building leadership teams.
    • Attend and participate in parent-teacher conferences, school events, activities and parent training programs.
    • Question – how we get involved with decision process for spending funds,
    • A - meeting with title 1 math teaches, building leadership Erin, and Nick, anybody can give us feedback
• PTO Shed – We will be getting a New PTO shed (discussed more later in meeting)
• Grounds Volunteer Chrissy Basil is our custodian. She is wondering if there is a parent volunteer who would like to help take care of grounds, planting, mulching etc., maybe more towards the summer when grounds crew aren’t available.
  • Mrs. Cowan – their used to be a PTO role that did landscaping would get kids and help a few times per year, maybe the PTO can try to resurrect it.
  • Parent – We could make it a community thing – if we make a flyer we can try to organize folks on a day to clean up.
  • Mr. Bertrams – an example of work that needs done is we have dead plants strewn through the mulch this year. We mostly need help with general weeding and keep the grounds looking nice, the school would pay for any supplies needed.
  • Parent - Scouts could be involved, but they currently aren’t able to use the building without paying, why can’t pto pay for scouts to use the school for meetings?
  •  Katie Ayers, this is not sustainable with how many scouts use building.
  • Parent – maybe could scouts trade volunteer hours for using the space for free? Can we talk to the district about paying for the Scouts’ use of the building, considering we are title 1 school. We are asking families to pay for use of school to keep kids busy, how can the district support us in this
  • Katie Ayers, that’s a good question, we can follow up with district.

 
President’s Report – Katie Ayers
Fantastic family engagement to start the year. 

• Back to School Social was a huge hit! Playground was packed and went through 500 snow cones! Very well attended.
• 125+ families filled out the One Form, representing over 160 students,
• Tonight! Preliminary Vote for Friendship Guide Cover narrowing down the covers and then kids will vote on them at lunch
• Elementary Night Tailgate at Scioto Varsity Football Game resurrecting an oldie event, Cheer camp, chapman students and ose students attended, fun event, food was provided.

 
PTO & Booster Annual Meeting at Emerald Campus

• Communication
• Digital Accessibility making sure that social media content and email is accessible to a wide range of users
• Financial Requirements with DCS

 
PTO Executive Meeting at Emerald Campus

• Connect with other school PTOs
• New Superintendent / Deputy Superintendent
• Building / Facility Updates

Opportunities

• Looking for Committee Lead for Family Game Night & Gear Swap in April. This will be an outdoor event in spring that will include swapping out any sports gear, donate items at end of event if left over.
• 12th Graduation Scholarship development help. At our last PTO meeting we approved a scholarship for a graduating senior at Scioto that attended OSE. We need to develop the qualifications and how to decide who receives the scholarship, need volunteers to plan, Todd is interested.
• Executive Board Succession Planning – last year as president for Katie, the bylaws would like the incoming president to serve as co vice to shadow position, Katie would like to onboard the incoming president over the next year, any volunteers connect with Katie. April is when new board members are presented, voting for the new executive board is in May.

Treasurer’s Report – Ashley Walter

• Kg journal previously teachers purchased a journal that parents paid a few dollars for this year the journals were less expensive so PTO covered the cost of the journals.
• Expense Changes      
  • Friendship Guides $28.47 and $97.47 (paper, combs, cover/back cardstock)
  • Office Supplies - $18.69 (copy paper)
  • KG Playdate $5.94 (suckers)
  • KG Journals - -$119.86
  • Back to School Social Supplies - $127.26 & $52.97 (name tags, sharpies, friendship bracelets, cups, spoons)
  • Playground supplies - $108.00 (soccer nets)
  • Staff Appreciation - $559.26 (Luncheon, back to school)
  • Shared Concessions - $93.24 (Tailgate food and supplies)
  • Mum Flower Sale - $6.23 (copy paper)
• Revenue Changes
  • None
• Grant Request
  • None
• Approved Grants
  • None
• Grant Reimbursement/Debit
  • None
• Account Standing
  • Savings Account - $25,319.15
  • Checking Account - $12,470.77
    • Outstanding Deposit - $0
    • Outstanding Check - $0
  • Net Balance - $37.789.92
• Ongoing Card Dispute - $4,392.32 (unauthorized purchase)

Room Party Funds
                KG - $0
                1st - $200.00
                2nd - $388.00
                3rd - $430.00
                4th - $656.10
                5th - $771.71
There is $122.07 allocated for the tree purchase from the district by last year’s 5th grade class. We have not been billed yet, if we are not billed we will roll those funds over to the current 5th grade class.
Old Business

• 12th Grade Graduation Scholarship for OSE Alums
  • In budget, looking for volunteers to develop
• Shed Replacement
  • Haven’t done a whole lot on that yet. Katie and Nick need to connect about how to get quote from district facilities.

New Business
Committee Reports  

• Friendship Guide/One Form – voting for cover at lunch, lots of great art, we are up participation wise from last year. Volunteer opportunities help kids vote at lunch on the 14th. Times are 11am-12:50, and also put guides together 18th if someone wants to be involved, they can recommend a time that works, most likely would be during the day
• 9.22 Monster Mash Committee – Library 6:30
• 9.24 5th Grade Committee – Library 6:30
• Mums Sale flyers going home tomorrow our goal is $5,000 ends the 29th Oct 8 is delivery and pick up need volunteers.
• Question from Todd -Why did everyone show up tonight? In person, emails? Superintendent? Yes all of the above, in person is helpful, reminder was really helpful, helpful that the superintendent was here and that brought people out. Katie said we can bring out more guest speakers as well if that is of interest to folks. People like the in person meetings!

 
Family Connection

• Back to School Social – Kecia Cropper &
     Jessica Moore
• Friendship Guide / One Form – Todd Harris
• Football Tailgate - Katie Ayers
• Monster Mash - 
• Donuts with Grownups – Nick Bertrams
• Pancake Breakfast – Nick Bertrams
• Game Night & Gear Swap - OPEN
• Bricks – Byron & Jessica Wakely

 
Staff Support

• Staff Appreciation – Amanda White
• Teacher Liason – Lauren Jenson

 
Student Enrichment

• Room Parent Coordinator – Lisa Brennan
• School Supplies - Todd Harris
• Field Day – Drew Parry
• 5th Grade Recognition – Jessica Wakely
• Spirit Wear – Craig Walter
• Cub Scout Liaison - TR Snyder
• 12th Grade Scholarship - OPEN

 
Fundraising

• One Form/Membership Drive - Todd Harris
• Mums Sale – Ashley Walter & Ariel Kerek
• Apex – Katie Calhoun
• Restaurant Nights – Amy Thompson

Rewards Programs – Kecia Cropper   
Calendar:

• September 9: Mums Sale Begins
• September 14: BOE Meeting
• September 15: Bus Evacuation Drills
• September 16: Fire Drill
• September 21: Cub Scout Talks
• September 22: Fall Picture Day
• September 25: Town Hall
• September 28: BOE Meeting
• September 28: Yearbook Cover Art Contest Starts
• September 29: Mums Sale Ends
• October 1: Flu Shot Clinic
• October 5: Family Groups
• October 8: Book Fair Opens
• October 8: Mums Pick up Day 4-7
• October 12: BOE Meeting
• October 12: Yearbook Cover Art Contest Ends
• October 13: Safety Drill
• October 13: PTO Meeting Virtual
• October 15: Parent/Teacher Conferences
• October 16: No School (Professional Development Day)
• October 19: Parent/Teacher Conferences
• October 30: Harvest Class Parties
• October 30: Monster Mash 7pm

 
Meeting adjourned at 7:50 TR motioned Todd seconded
   
​




​Olde Sawmill Elementary   PTO Minutes: August 11, 2026
Attendees: Nick Bertrams, Katie Ayers, Todd Harris, Ashley Walter, Jordan Martin, Craig Walter, TR Snyder, Katie Calhoun
Call Meeting to Order– Katie Ayers – 7:05
                Welcome, Introductions
Approval of Minutes – TR motions to approve, Todd seconds
Principal’s Report –

• 1st Year for Nick Bertrams as principal
• New Asst. Principal Erin Friedman, coming from Admin Intern position at Riverside
• Sadie Bolinger, 1st grade teacher taking 1 year absence Lucy Amatos is filling in for Bolinger, starting with long term sub to start year to accommodate leave
• 2 new paraprofessionals and 1 new intervention specialist
• Teachers return Monday Aug. 17th
• Meet the Teacher and Curriculum Hour
  • Changing it up this year to host curriculum hour first and meet the teacher second. Families come into commons and kids will go to playground with OSE staff. Parents start in the Commons, then go to classrooms for curriculum hour. After curriculum hour parents will pick up kids from playground and head in to meet the teacher. Hopefully this will increase attendance at curriculum hour

• Kindergarteners came in 3 groups for orientation; this helped for kids to get to know staff and new friends as well as help staff determine class rosters.
• New Start Time! Starting 5 minutes later – Last bell will ring at 9:15 and dismissal will be at 3:45, drop off is 9:05

President’s Report –

• Monthly Meeting Schedule

• 2nd Tuesday of the month, all virtual, 7-8pm link will remain the same throughout the year

• OSE PTO Flyers

• Explain how we fundraise and how we use the funds that we raise

• Back To School Social Aug 18th 6:30-8:00, chance to meet up with friends, snow cones and fun!
• Kindergarten Playdate Aug 15 10-12, meet other incoming kindergarteners
• Tailgate at Scioto Football Game Sept. 4th, PTO will provide food and drinks before the football game, participants will need to purchase tickets to the football game
• Monster Mash Friday Oct. 30th
• Volunteer opportunities
• Aug. 12th Volunteer Work-Day 12-1:30 OSE Commons
• Aug. 15th KG Playdate could use a volunteer
• Aug. 17th Teacher Luncheon could use help at 10:30 to help set up lunch for the teachers
• Aug. 18th Back to School Social needs volunteers
• Sept. 4th Football Tailgate
• Sept. 14-18th OSE Conference Room, work through One Forms – cover voting contest and assemble friendship guide

Treasurer's Report –
Expense Changes:
Field Day
Teacher Funds
Bricks
5th Grade Party
Principal Funds – Chromebook for family in need
Clover Cart
Teacher Appreciation
Recognition – 2 Bricks, Martha – outgoing principal and Nolan who passed away this school year
               
Revenue Changes:
Blue Jackets $110
End of year Party Kindergarten $68
Kroger Rewards $243.42
Bricks $210.00
Spring Flower $35
 
Grant Request:
Ashwill/Williams – Request for recess games $216.19
Grant reimbursement debit – library maker space $849.78
Cooking club $105
Safety patrol-Pizza party moved to line item instead of grant request
Clippers $459
OT/SLP grant $97.63
Sarah Jacob $22.99 remaining from previous grant for classroom
 
 
 
Old Business –

• PTO Shed – used for storage for PTO and share the space with Boy Scouts. Floor is rotting out, large hole in it. Doors are rotting out. Should we replace or try to fix the shed? Consensus is to replace it, would most likely be cheaper to replace than repair. Motion to move forward with replacing Todd motions, TR seconds. Will talk with facilities on how to replace shed.
• Boy Scouts received information about renting space for meetings, scouts are no longer allowed to rent the gym. Group B – community groups are allowed to rent. Group C non-profits are allowed to rent Group D for profit is allowed to rent Group E scouting groups are not allowed to rent. The question is why Scouts are not allowed to rent when other groups are. This seems like it does not benefit kids, and we don’t understand why. This is a question for the district and/or board. Plan is to bring this up at the PTO presidents meeting to understand why the change. PTO holds the charter for the scouts so Scouts are hoping the PTO can help work through this issue with them.

New Business –

• Book Blast
  • New opportunity book raiser, similar to APEX kids get a QR code to share with friends and family for every $10 they collect up to $100 they get a book, books are preselected. Any extra money that they collect goes into a pot for others who didn’t collect max. Every kid will get at least 1 book, and then the extra money would also go towards buying books for kids who didn’t raise the full amount. The company provides videos to play for kids each day, they like to do this around Read Across America Week, in the Spring. We are looking to host this at the end of the year. Nick would really like to get books into all the kid’s homes, we have students who report they have no books at home and we would like to change that. This is a 2-week event, a total of 9 school days. Books are delivered 2-3 weeks after the event closed. Would like to get the books delivered right before end of school year for kids to take home books over summer. The company does the whole lift for us, minimal work for staff or PTO. This is not a fundraiser, all $ collected is towards the books. Motion to move forward with Book Blast by Katie, Todd seconded. Motion approved.
• Spring Flower sale will not be happening this year, we will do the book blast instead. And because APEX was so successful we hope that APEX will bring in enough to replace spring flowers. We don’t want to have 2 spring fundraisers, and overwhelm people.
• New Budget 2026-2027 School Year

Revised revenue and expenses to reflect actuals from last year. Vote to approve the new budget Ashley motions to approve, Todd seconds. The budget is approved.

 
Dates To Remember
August 15th – Kindergarten Social
Augst 18th – New Student Orientation
August 18th – Back to School Social
August 19th- Curriculum Hour and Meet the Teacher
August 20th – First day of School
August 20th and 21st - Kindergarten Phase in Days
 
               
Adjourn Meeting – 8:15