HALLOWELL — A private group that raised money to help pay for construction of Hall-Dale Elementary School is planning to resume efforts after years of inactivity.

The motivation and timing are partly a result of the school board’s recent decision to cut elementary school foreign language instruction and a half-time nursing position from Hall-Dale’s schools, officials say.

Team Hall-Dale, a nonprofit organization of volunteers from Farmingdale and Hallowell, formed in 2004 with a goal of raising $560,000 to raise money for amenities at the school that the state wouldn’t pay for, including a larger gymnasium, cafeteria and library.

The group gathered pledges for at least $350,000, but many donations never materialized. The City Council reversed a decision to sell the site of the previous elementary school and donate the proceeds, estimated at $200,000, to Team Hall-Dale.

“About year two or so is when the economy started going bad,” said Andrew McPherson, the organization’s president. “The donations dried up, and even some of the people who had pledged some pretty good money said, ‘Hey, we can’t do it now.'”

Team Hall-Dale has donated $215,125 to Regional School Unit 2 and the former School Administrative District 16, most of it coming in two installments: $175,000 in April 2006 and $40,000 in October 2007.

As students and staff wrap up the sixth year of classes in the school on Winthrop Street, Team Hall-Dale will resume active fundraising.

“We’re prepared to launch the program again and bring in the money to fulfill those promises,” said Mayor Charlotte Warren. “We’ve seen lots of cutbacks, and we wanted to work really hard to make sure that the programming that we value continues.”

Money raised by Team Hall-Dale would not go toward foreign language or nursing, but Regional School Unit 2 Superintendent Virgel Hammonds said paying off debt from Hall-Dale Elementary’s construction would allow the district to redirect funds now designated for debt repayment.

Maine’s Major Capital School Construction Program uses formulas to determine how big classrooms, gymnasiums and cafeterias should be, and that in turn dictates what the state will fund. If school districts want larger or more elaborate facilities, they must raise the money locally.

In 2004, voters in Farmingdale and Hallowell, then in School Administrative District 16, approved accepting $11.7 million in school construction funding, a $120,000 school grant and up to $600,000 in donations from Team Hall-Dale to build a $12.4 million elementary school.

The school district retained responsibility for debt service on the $558,000 in construction expenses for the additional facilities.

McPherson said fundraising and pledges slowed down after Hallowell councilors took an informal vote in 2004 to give Team Hall-Dale the proceeds from selling Vaughan Field, the 8-acre site of the previous elementary school. That would have brought the group close to their target.

A group of residents calling themselves Friends of Vaughan Field objected because of deed restrictions that required the land to be used as a public park and playground or school grounds. Councilors voted in 2006 to restore the site as a park.

McPherson said the last major activity of Team Hall-Dale was a solicitation made through a mass mailing about 18 months ago.

A few board members of Team Hall-Dale still meet periodically to send out bills for pledges and track donations. McPherson said the organization has about $26,000 in the bank from donations that have trickled in during the last few years.

“I’ll still get these checks in the mail for $25 or $50,” he said.

The $215,125 that Team Hall-Dale gave to SAD 16 and then RSU 2 was placed in its own account, from which the school district has periodically withdrawn to make debt payments. The last withdrawal of $48,532 was made in June 2010, and the account balance has hovered near $15,500 since then.

Meantime, RSU 2 has made debt payments on the additional amenities with balance forward funds from SAD 16. As part of the 2008 budget vote, SAD 16 voters approved the use of $341,557 in balance forward funds for that purpose.

Balance forward money build ups during a budget year from small savings or receipt of unexpected revenue. School districts and municipalities often apply the money to the next year’s budget to reduce the amount assessed to local taxpayers.

“Team Hall-Dale said, ‘We need some more time,’ and the (district) said, ‘That’s fine, we have money that we can find in our budget lines to cover the debt service,'” Hammonds said.

Hammonds said all the communities in RSU 2 — which also serves Dresden, Monmouth and Richmond — are still contributing money toward the payment of obligations incurred before the formation of the school district in 2009.

Once those are paid, it could free up money to be used elsewhere, Hammonds said.

Hammonds, who started in RSU 2 last summer, said he has recently started talking with Team Hall-Dale and other private foundations in the school district about what he can do to help them fulfill promises.

McPherson said Team Hall-Dale has shrunk to a handful of volunteers, from about 25 at its founding, but recently a few people have expressed interest in reviving fundraising.

Warren, who was not one of the initial volunteers but has offered to help with social media and online communications, said she is optimistic because people in Farmingdale and Hallowell value their schools.

“We had a huge outpouring of support for making sure that foreign language and having nurses in our schools continues,” she said. “I know that given the right tools, people will put their money where their mouth is.”

Susan McMillan — 621-5645

[email protected]