Umbaugh has accumulated more than 50 years of experience and expertise in financing educational facilities. In the process, we’ve acquired a unique skill set and array of services, allowing us to work with school districts and communities to facilitate successful financing options. Our comprehensive services are customized to the special needs of each school district, providing guidance and assistance from inception to completion of each project.

Our approach is to serve as independent financial advisor to the municipal finance sector in planning the issuance of bonds to finance construction programs. This independence from the bond underwriting assures you of the greatest objectivity in analyzing, determining and planning your program. We draw upon our experience in government finance and strategic planning, which adds additional depth and perspective to our work.

The prerequisite for any financial course of action is clear, concise and understandable communication of information—financial and otherwise.

We begin by listening to school administrators to fully understand the goals and objectives for funding the immediate capital need, while maintaining a long-term perspective in planning.

We prepare financing options for consideration of the school district, and then we work to develop consensus for the most suitable approach. A properly planned and effectively presented bond financing will receive the widest public support, be viewed most favorably by bond credit analysts and bond purchasers and achieve the lowest interest cost available to the school district.

Throughout the planning process, we prepare analytical cost studies to assist school officials in determining the appropriateness of the project, given the needs of the community.

Public support for the issuance of bonds is very important to the success of a capital improvement project. Our experience with public meetings and ability to clearly communicate financial information in the public arena assist local school leaders in gaining support for their projects and financial solutions.

We assist the school district in securing necessary State approvals. We work in concert with elected and appointed officials, their staff, building and site committees, the architect, the construction manager and bond counsel towards the success of each project.

On behalf of the school district, we prepare Preliminary and Final Official Statements, clearly communicating the critical details of the borrowing, as well as relevant economic and demographic information for evaluation by rating agencies, bond insurance companies and bond purchasers. Our dialogue with rating analysts, bond insurers and bond purchasers continues throughout the marketing of the bonds to assure the highest bond rating, lowest bond insurance premiums and lowest interest rates available to the school district.

We facilitate the bond sale by either coordinating and evaluating competitive underwriting bids or by negotiating the sale with a single underwriter on behalf of the school district. Our daily contact with the bond market and access to the financial results of comparable bond sales assure that the bonds are appropriately priced.

We assist the bond trustees, bond counsel and underwriters in coordinating the closing of the bonds and provide final pricing results in a useful format for preparing future annual budgets.

We then provide independent advice and assistance to the school district with the investment of bond proceeds, continuing disclosure, and compliance with arbitrage requirements of the Internal Revenue Service.