HALLOWELL — After several months of discussion about donated money owed to Regional School Unit 2, Team Hall-Dale delivered the $26,000 one day ahead of a deadline set by the district school board.

Andrew McPherson, president of the nonprofit fundraising group, dropped off a check at the district’s central office on Thursday. He said he had difficulty finding time to get a bank check and was waiting for an answer from RSU 2 officials on how to make it out.

“They never got back to me,” McPherson said. “I’m busy. I work 60 to 70 hours a week. They finally sent me kind of a nasty letter.”

The letter to McPherson from the RSU 2 board — dated Monday and bearing the names of Chairwoman Dawn Gallagher, Vice Chairwoman Annya Rice and Hallowell board member Shawna Corbett — provides the address and phone number of the RSU 2 central office, noting that they have remained the same for several years.

“To ensure that no uncertainty or confusion remains, we are writing to you to let you know that you may use the same process to submit the donations as you did from 2006 to 2008 when it was (School Administrative District) 16 and that you used from 2009 through February 2010 when it was the RSU 2,” the letter states.

The school board was asked by the City Council to contact McPherson about the $26,000 in donations that had been received since February 2010, the letter states, and “we are sorry there was apparently some confusion on your part about how to submit the donations.”

The letter warned that the board expected to receive the $26,000 by today.

“Team Hall-Dale has delivered funds to the RSU for a number of years, in large amounts and small amounts, and (the board) really just wanted to clarify that things haven’t changed,” Superintendent Virgel Hammonds said Thursday. “You can go to the RSU central office and they will process the check as has been done in the past.”

Hallowell and RSU 2 officials hope to revive Team Hall-Dale after years of inactivity to fulfill the nonprofit group’s promise when it was formed in 2004 to raise $558,000 for the construction of Hall-Dale Elementary School.

Before Thursday, Team Hall-Dale had donated only $215,125 to the school district, with the last major transfer of money in October 2007. For the past two years, RSU 2 has had to use money carried over from the former School Administrative District 16 to make debt payments on the upgraded elementary school property that Team Hall-Dale was supposed to finance.

When approving the upgrades, Hallowell and Farmingdale voters agreed to assume responsibility for any costs Team Hall-Dale did not pay.

Team Hall-Dale’s promise has been discussed at several public meetings in recent months, especially since the RSU 2 board asked Hallowell and Farmingdale to pay extra taxes to maintain elementary school foreign language and a nurse’s position. The school board’s letter to McPherson notes that the district has “has to make some very painful cuts … while also requesting communities to increase the local tax burden.”

McPherson has been talking with officials from RSU 2 and Hallowell since the spring and told them that he had accumulated more than $26,000 in donations since Team Hall-Dale’s last gift to the school district.

Explaining why the money took so long to be transferred, McPherson said Thursday that RSU 2 officials never told him when they needed the money or how to submit it.

“That’s all I was looking for, who to make it out to and a chance to be in Augusta during the work day,” McPherson said.

McPherson said less than $1,000 remains in Team Hall-Dale’s account at Kennebec Savings Bank, and he needs to assemble volunteers to send out invoices for pledges made years ago.

Hammonds said he hopes to find out who originally volunteered with Team Hall-Dale and see if they’ll participate.

Hallowell City Council’s finance committee meeting will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall to discuss how to get people involved and ways to raise money.