Ice Miller served as counsel to Raymond James, the placement agent for the 2025 bonds and the underwriter of the 2026 bonds for Minnesota Metro Deaf School’s financing (MDS). MDS is a charter school providing bilingual education exclusively for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and deafblind students. Founded in 1993, MDS now serves 177 students from birth through 12th grade and has a distinctive funding profile: its 100 percent special-needs student population enables the school to receive full reimbursement for operating expenses under Minnesota law.

Partner Ben Kitto, associates Brian Magorien and Grant Miller, and practice group specialist Vicki White worked with the financing team to help Raymond James bring the deals to closing. Kitto and White were pleased to see MDS’s financing strategy come full circle, having also participated in MDS’s 2018 bond issue, a portion of which was refunded in 2025-26.

Ice Miller’s Public Finance team brings deep experience across charter school and education financings nationwide, having delivered bond counsel, borrower’s counsel, underwriter’s counsel, purchaser’s counsel, and issuer’s counsel solutions for charter school deals in more than 24 states and Washington, D.C., totaling more than $5 billion in principal amount. The team is able to provide start-to-finish support, from due diligence and document drafting through post-issuance and continuing disclosure, drawing on their in-depth knowledge of securities law and regulations, disclosure obligations, and continuing disclosure compliance issues.