Hawkins has extensive experience in primary and secondary education financing throughout the country, principally focused in those jurisdictions where we have a significant general obligation bond practice. Our attorneys have in-depth knowledge of funding and budget issues confronting school districts today. We assist school district clients with the authorization, sale and issuance of bonds and bond anticipation notes for capital projects, as well as with the authorization, sale and issuance of tax anticipation notes and revenue anticipation notes to finance cash flow requirements. The firm also advises its school district clients with respect to energy performance contracts, lease purchase financing, and every other variety of tax-exempt financing.
Our attorneys have developed expertise and widespread recognition in providing bond counsel services to many fiscally distressed school districts. We have guided several of our school district clients in obtaining special legislation permitting them to issue bonds to finance significant and unmanageable general fund operating deficits.
Hawkins has served as bond counsel on innovative interest-free bond financings undertaken by school districts pursuant to the Qualified Zone Academy Bond (“QZAB”) provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. We have also assisted several of our school district clients with bonds issued to implement special programs initiated by the federal government as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Hawkins’ New York school district financing practice includes over 150 public school district and BOCES clients throughout the State. We have served as bond counsel in recent years on several of the largest public school financings in New York State history, including the $245 million bond authorization for Roosevelt Union Free School District and the $228 million bond authorization for Sachem Central School District.
In California, our attorneys are at the forefront of financings structured to reflect recent changes in legislation, such as capital appreciation bonds. We also closely monitor the impact of budgetary issues facing school districts, including the deferral of principal apportionments and the determination by several school districts to charge students fees for certain programs, classroom materials and activities and the implementation of the California Local Control Funding Formula.
Hawkins is the dominant provider of bond counsel services in Oregon, serving as bond counsel to well over 100 Oregon school districts and educational service districts, from the largest to some of the smallest. Work with these Oregon educational clients include general obligation bonds, full faith & credit obligations, leases, and other types of financings. We are also bond counsel to the Oregon School Boards Association (“OSBA”) - sponsored PERS, FlexFund and FlexTRAN programs.
The following is a representative list of the firm’s recurring bond counsel and underwriters’ counsel engagements in the public primary and secondary sector:
New York School Districts
- Brewster CSD
- Capital Region BOCES
- Champlain Valley BOCES
- Chappaqua CSD
- Corning City SD
- Garden City UFSD
- Great Neck UFSD
- Hempstead UFSD
- Huntington UFSD
- Niagara-Wheatfield CSD
- Riverhead UFSD
- Scarsdale UFSD
- Smithtown CSD
- Tuckahoe UFSD
- Yorktown CSD
California School Districts
- Anaheim ESD
- Antioch USD
- Beverly Hills USD
- Cloverdale USD
- Fresno County USD
- Goleta USD
- Hacienda-LaPuente USD
- Jefferson UHSD
- Long Beach USD
- Los Angeles USD
- Montebello USD
- Napa Valley USD
- Sacramento City USD
- San Marino USD
- Tamalpais UHSD
Oregon School Districts
- Adrian School District No. 61
- Beaverton School District 48J
- Bend-LaPine Administrative School District No. 1
- Coos Bay School District No. 9
- Corvallis School District No. 509J
- David Douglas School District No. 40
- Gresham-Barlow School District 10Jt
- Hillsboro School District 1J
- Morrow County School District No. 1
- Pendleton School District No. 16
- Portland Public Schools
- Riverdale School District No. 51J
- Salem-Keizer School District No. 42J
- Seaside School District No. 10
- Tigard-Tualatin School District No. 23J
- Umatilla School District No. 6R