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Memorandum 
 
To: Barb Kirchmeier 
​From:​ Rachel Matlock, Tranquil Kamae, Makendra Patzer, Cassidy Livingston  
Date: February 2020 
Subject: Lena Whitmore Agency Profile  
 

Lena Whitmore Agency Profile 

Purpose 
The purpose of this memorandum is to provide information on Lena Whitmore's PAT (Parent
Advisory Team), which will include an agency profile, a communications analysis, and a list of
possible future projects. Additional information regarding details on grading scales in Part II:
Communication Analysis will be in the Appendix.  Lena Whitmore PAT will be referred to PAT
from here forth.  
 

Part I: Agency Profile 

Agency Mission Statement
The purpose of PAT is to provide educational, emotional, and financial support to the students,
staff, and families of Lena Whitmore Elementary School with the PAT being comprised of
dedicated Lena Whitmore parents working to improve the learning environment through
projects, fundraisers, and support year-round.  
 
Current Goals 
PAT has been working for the last several years to create a disability-friendly playground with
equipment for the older kids of Lena Whitmore Elementary. This project includes providing a
wheelchair-friendly swing and pathway. The yearly goals of PAT would include a continued
amount of support to families and teachers. The group’s personal goals are to become more
organized, grow in diversity among parents of all grade levels, and raise more awareness and
support in the community.
 
Leadership Hierarchy
 

The Lena Whitmore PAT is organized by a list of board members which includes a president,
vice president, treasurer, secretary, and two fundraising and event chairmen. Additionally, Lena
Whitmore’s principal, Kendra McMillan, is an ex-officio member of the committee. Along with
the board members, parents regularly attend meetings. The average number of non-board
members ranges from 15-20. 
 
Board Members 2019-2020 
● President: Nara Woodland- Runs meetings, organizes external communications and sub
committees, and oversees organization. 
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● Vice President: Mary Ellen Brewick- Coordinates internal communication, oversees

grant writing, runs community building within PAT, communicates with other school
groups and community organizations, and runs board member elections. 
● Treasurer: Niels Damman/Jill Robertson- Records all spending, fund raising, and grant
writing income. 
● Secretary: Meghan Raney- Creates internal documentation and manages external
documentation in the forms of agendas, minutes, and social media. 
● Fundraising and Event Chairmen: Paula Nuhn/Mirada Fenley- Coordinates all
fundraisers and events with the aid of the president. 
● Principal: Kendra McMillan 
 
Budget Information
Each year, PAT sets a goal to raise a minimum of $18,000. The funds are used to budget
for activities each year. In addition, PAT’s fundraising efforts include the long-term goal to build
a disability-friendly playground which would require approximately $150,000. Currently, PAT
has raised $70,000 towards this long-term goal. 
 
PAT splits its annual budget of $18,000 in the following ways:  
● Capital fund for the long-term projects  
● Family events and fundraisers  
● Guest authors  
● Lena Library  
● PAT Grants for teachers within the school 
● School improvement and school supplies  
● The annual winter concert  
● PAT group supplies  
● Taxes 
 
Current Funding Sources
 

PAT has a variety of funding sources. Yearly funding is primarily provided through donations
and organization-run fundraisers. For long term goal funding, PAT parents and University of
Idaho students volunteer to write grants. PAT also participates in Amazon Smiles and Box Tops
for Education. PAT has raised approximately $70,000 towards the play-ground funding from
their $150,000 goal. 
 
Overview of the School System 
Lena Whitmore Elementary 
Lena Whitmore Elementary is located in Moscow, Idaho on 110 South Blaine Street. The
elementary school has 250 students and was the 28th best school in Idaho in 2019. 37% of
students are on Free & Reduced Lunch, which is higher than the state average of 24%. Lena
Whitmore Elementary provides free lunch during the summer for the local Moscow community.
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Neighborhood and District Area

East City Park is located next to Lena Whitmore Elementary. The park is located in a largely
residential area of Moscow, Idaho. The park is used five times a day for recess by the
school. Additionally, the neighborhood’s families and students regularly use the area during the
weekends and in the summer. Local clubs such as Adventure Club use the park during the
summer months. Adventure Club is a summer program for kindergarteners through to seventh
graders. 
 
Lena Whitmore is one of four elementary schools and one of seven total schools in District
#281. 2,400 students attend school in this district.

Part II: Communication Analysis 

Introduction 
 

In this section, the Lena Whitmore PAT will be scored against five other schools to determine
areas in which it could grow. Using a Likert scale based on five criteria and following a specific
methodology, our team determined two areas in which the Lena Whitmore PAT can improve. For
more information regarding the areas in which improvement can be made, please see the
summary. The comprehensive comparison score can be found in Appendix 1A at the end of this
document.
 
Criterion 
 

A five-point Likert scale shown below is the basis for gauging results. The results are based on
the following five criteria. 
 
● Accessible electronic communication (email, social media, website). For
example, communication about upcoming events is accessible and readily available to
parents and committee members in these locations. 
● Relevant leadership hierarchy is visible to committee members.  
● It is easy to locate information on fundraisers and events.  
● Fundraisers and events are community inclusive, i.e. not limited to a specific grade
level.  

Likert Scale 
 
Terrible   Bad  Okay  Good  Excellent 
1  2  3  4  5 
 
Definitions 
 

Terrible: Scoring a one indicates that the material was hard to locate, difficult to understand, and
overall not useful.
 
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Bad: Scoring a two indicates that the material was hard to locate, perhaps a little difficult to
understand, or was incomplete. Only somewhat useful. 
 
Okay: Scoring a three indicates that the material was visible and available but overall was not as
clear and concise as it could be.
 
Good: Scoring a four indicates that the material was easily accessible, concise, clear, and
complete.  
 
Excellent: Scoring a five indicates that the material was readily available, easy to navigate,
concise, complete, and abundant in information.  
 
Methodology  
 

In order to determine where on the Likert scale each school would rank, we utilized five criteria.
For each criteria a judgment was made about the availability, specificity, conciseness,
accessibility, and activity of each school. For example, the first criteria is “accessible electronic
communication.” Thus, we looked at how easy or complicated it was to find contact information,
where that information was being shared, how it was being shared, and who could view it. If it
was difficult to find this information or it was unavailable to necessary parties, the school was
given a lower ranking score. If it was easily available, or readily accessible to necessary parties,
the school was ranked higher.
 
Summary 
 

In short, there are two major areas that the Lena Whitmore PAT can improve upon based on a
comparison of five other schools. The two areas where the Lena Whitmore PAT could improve
the most are interconnected. The first is in how information is best located. A large portion of the
data and information we gathered was from our interview with the vice president. If this same
information, including access to the hierarchy of leadership in the PAT committees, was
accessible through a secured website to parents and interested parties, that would be beneficial. It
would also create more connectivity with the outside community as a bonus. The second is that
the hierarchy of the leadership team is not readily available, which leaves more room for
communicative errors and confusion.
 
Conclusion 
 

The Lena Whitmore PAT was one of the more organized and accessible organizations
we researched and analyzed among the five schools. This is promising. More readily accessible
information is the one thing that we believe could be improved upon. Otherwise, Lena Whitmore
is an excellent example of how a PAT or other parent-based school organizations should be set up
and organized.
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Part III: Possible Second Projects 

Below is a list of possible second projects that our team may pursue for the fourth project in this
course.

Possible Second Projects

Instagram Revamp: Make an account for Lena if not already done and post pictures of events,
 

sports games, school spirit, etc. Use school’s Facebook as a way for the school to share event
reminders, have a space for a calendar, talk about fundraisers, give a special light to specific
achievements (student awards, donations, guest speakers, etc.).  
Write another grant: This grant could be for anything outside of the playground grant.  
Pamphlet Newsletters: Create a short pamphlet-like document that showcases current and
ongoing projects and events that are supported by Lena Whitmore PAT. This could be distributed
by parents to the community to help raise awareness of the groups’ purpose. 
Revamping website: Connecting it to Facebook, make it more accessible and user friendly,
really put an emphasis on connection and communication, make it geared more towards parents
and their experiences and success with using the website, include more information about the
PAT.  
GoFundMe: Short campaign for raising awareness, could be a one-day campaign, some amount
of money. Our team would write up our reasonings and create the GoFundMe.  
Dropbox for Parents: A place for parents to share pictures of events, games, crafts, etc. instead
of using the school’s Facebook page.
  
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Appendix 1A 
Likert Scale Representation of School Criteria 
 
Accessible Electronic Terrible  Bad  Okay  Good  Excellent 
Communication  
Lena Whitmore 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary 
Ramsey Elementary   1  2  3  4  5 
Bridlemile Elementary   1  2  3  4  5 
Seltice Elementary  1  2  3  4  5 
Priest River 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary  
Mullan Trail 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary  
 
Accessible Leadership Terrible  Bad  Okay  Good  Excellent 
Hierarchy  
Lena Whitmore 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary 
Ramsey Elementary   1  2  3  4  5 
Bridlemile Elementary   1  2  3  4  5 
Seltice Elementary  1  2  3  4  5 
Priest River 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary  
Mullan Trail 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary  
 
Easy access to Terrible  Bad  Okay  Good  Excellent 
information  
Lena Whitmore 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary 
Ramsey Elementary   1  2  3  4  5 
Bridlemile Elementary   1  2  3  4  5 
Seltice Elementary  1  2  3  4  5 
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Priest River 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary  
Mullan Trail 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary  
 
Community Terrible  Bad  Okay  Good  Excellent 
Inclusivity  
Lena Whitmore 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary 
Ramsey Elementary   1  2  3  4  5 
Bridlemile Elementary   1  2  3  4  5 
Seltice Elementary  1  2  3  4  5 
Priest River 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary  
Mullan Trail 1  2  3  4  5 
Elementary