Thanks to Umatilla voters, the District began work on its facilities project following the November 2022 election. Since then, much work has been happening to keep our projects progressing.
On May 24th, 2023, the District sold its bonds. Thanks to a strong credit rating and favorable market conditions, the $45.2 million general obligation bond was sold at a premium and we received nearly $2 million in additional funds at no cost to taxpayers. The $47.1 million in bond funds are being paired with the $4 million grant from the State or Oregon and $2.4 million in seismic grant funds to build the new 4-6 building, the new CTE building, renovate the current CTE building and provide updates to McNary Heights and Clara Brownell.
Throughout the bond sale and pricing process, we aimed to provide the best possible value to Umatilla tax payers. Though we advertised an increase of $1.19/thousand resulting in a total bond levy amount of $2.12/thousand, we were able to obtain bond funds that are payable over 30 years with an all-in true interest cost of 4.75%. Debt service on the bonds was structured to be supported by a bond levy rate increase of $0.65 per $1,000 of assessed value leading to a total District bond (for old and new bonds) levy rate of $1.77/1000.
Beginning in the 2024 tax year, the District anticipates the bond levy rate to decrease based on payments from Amazon to help cover the new bond’s debt payments. These payments from Amazon are expected to increase substantially over the next several years leading to a significant decrease of the bond levy for other District taxpayers from the initial $0.65 increase.
With the bond work completed successfully, we hired our project manager and architect. Alliance Management & Construction Solutions was selected as the project manager. Design West Architects was selected for architectural work. These names may be familiar as both worked on the Clara Brownell Middle School and McNary Heights renovations during the last bond and both helped us complete that project ahead of schedule and under budget.
While the site on South Hill still looks untouched, much work has been completed and we look forward to continued work through the coming months so we may open new buildings in the fall of 2025. For questions regarding the project, please email Superintendent Sipe at sipeh@umatillasd.org.