Municipal advisory services for schools
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Our team of experienced, independent advisors works closely with school districts of all sizes to develop comprehensive solutions driven by data and rooted in best practices — helping you succeed today and anticipate tomorrow. We assist school districts to secure needed monies for operations, capital needs, cash flow, technology, new construction and deferred maintenance.
Our solutions
From your district’s annual budget or operational needs to extensive capital improvement plans, Baker Tilly’s advisors provide strategic and practical fiscal guidance allowing you to address immediate financial needs and achieve long-term goals. Our independence from the bond underwriting process and our fiduciary responsibility to clients assures you of objectivity in analyzing, determining and planning.
Capital planning
- Debt management studies
- Long-range capital planning and implementation
- Project planning and financial development
- Referendum preparation
- Financial presentations to elected officials and the public
Financial management
- Accounting systems design, implementation and training
- Audit preparation and financial reporting
- Budget preparation and assistance
- Comprehensive financial planning
- Performance management and operational efficiency studies
Bond issuance and bond refunding
- Offering documents and bond sale preparations
- Presentations to bond ratings agencies
- Competitive bond sales and electronic
- Bidding services
- Refinancing debt
- Negotiated bond sales and private placements
- Coordination of bond closings
- Assistance to the trustee bank
- Post issuance tax compliance
- Escrow verifications
Post issuance
- In-progress construction reports
- Arbitrage rebate calculations
- Annual continuing disclosure filings
Referendum services
- Scientific Random Sample Surveys
- Tax impact calculation and debt modeling
- Consultation on campaign organization, leadership and execution
- Post-election analysis
School Tax Elections - Planning for Success in the New Normal - 3rd Edition
by: Don E. Lifto and Barbara Nicol
DON E. LIFTO is a director and consultant with Baker Tilly. Previously, he was a school superintendent in Minnesota for twenty-five years, having served in rural, suburban, and intermediate districts.
BARBARA NICOL, APR, has more than thirty years of experience in the communications field. She founded Barbara Nicol Public Relations in 1990 and focuses her work on providing strategic and high-quality communications expertise to school districts and education-related organizations.
About this book:
Whether it is requests for bricks and mortar or more operating money, each election type and context is unique with no guarantee that a set of campaign strategies successful in one district will not fail in another community. If successful campaigns were not such a delicate balance of science and art, the key to success would have long since been discovered, resulting in significantly more school districts winning at the ballot box. As members of the baby-boom generation collectively watch their last child receive a diploma from our nation's public schools, passing school tax elections is going to be even more difficult, promising tougher battles with the electorate and tighter margins between success and failure. School Tax Elections represents a marriage of research and successful practice, presenting a comprehensive planning model for school leaders preparing for and conducting school tax elections. Information presented emphasizes systems and strategies rather than specific campaign tactics, allowing school leaders to elevate their thinking to a more comprehensive and long-range vision of election planning. The authors provide school leaders with important resources to guide their planning and execution of school tax elections.