Transaction Details

Upper Lake Unified School District

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Baird’s California K-12 Public Finance group served as sole managing underwriter on the $4,820,000 2024 Certificates of Participation (the “Certificates”) transaction for Upper Lake Unified School District (the “District”). The District is located in Lake County and became a unified school district in 2016 following a merger of the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District and the Upper Lake Union High School District. It serves approximately 900 students across an elementary school, middle school, high school and three alternative schools.

The Certificates will be used to finance the improvement and equipping of the District’s educational facilities for energy efficiency purposes. Unique to this transaction, the District had a preference for prepayment optionality and Baird was able to tailor the financing to help meet the District’s needs by incorporating an optional prepayment provision that was less than 3 years at a minimal pricing penalty when compared to similar transactions with longer optional prepayment provisions.

Baird priced the Certificates amidst a volatile market one week prior to the 2024 election. On the day of pricing, MMD rose between 2 to 5 basis points but the District’s Certificates still received ample attention from investors on many maturities. Ultimately, with minimal adjustments, Baird underwrote 10% of the transaction to successfully complete the transaction.