SOUTH HADLEY — Plans to rename Plains Elementary School after the late principal Henry Skala are moving forward now that the school’s PTA has raised enough money to buy signs.

Started by PTA President Megan Bartlett, the GoFundMe campaign raised some $4,360 in about two weeks. The campaign’s target is based on a quote for two signs, one at the front of the school and one next to the front door, as well as illumination lights that point upward.

The School Committee still must decide whether the sign will say “Henry J. Skala Elementary School” or “Henry J. Skala Early Learning Center.”

“I am just so relieved that as we approach the two-year anniversary of Hank’s passing that we can actually conceive that the building could finally have his name on it for the upcoming 24-25 school year,” School Committee Vice Chair Danielle Cooke said. “Hank was always a huge partner with the Plains PTA, and they have been so incredible with being involved for this project to honor him.”

Cooke said she’s amazed the GoFundMe has already covered the cost of the sign materials.

Bartlett said the remainder of the campaign’s goal is for electrician and installation costs. She received a lot of outreach and community support about the project from staff, parents and students, which Bartlett said is a testament to Skala’s ability to form relationships within the community and go “above and beyond.”

“Since his passing, this was our goal to be able to fund renaming the school just because he made a tremendous impact on so many people in the community, administration and School Committee,” Bartlett said. “Personality wise, he was good at what he did and he cared so deeply about it, and it was felt by so many people.”

Efforts to rename the school were first announced in February 2023, but the project stalled when quotes for the new signs exceeded the current budget.

The project experienced further delays as South Hadley entered the Massachusetts School Building Authority grant program and considered a districtwide grade redistribution that transitions Plains Elementary into an early learning center. Once MSBA invited South Hadley to continue the process of building a new school, the renaming project came back to the School Committee.

“The other part of the hesitation was, well, what if this doesn’t happen for five or seven years and how do we change the name now because if the grade reconfiguration happens, it would be pre-K and kindergarten, (but) right now we still have first grade there,” Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Voyikn said.

Voyikn noted that early learning center applies to institutions teaching up to second grade and could cover the school’s transitions.

According to Cooke, the school committee will reconvene on the name and unveiling date once funds have been secured for the signs.

Skala, who went by “Hank,” was named the principal of Plains Elementary in 2016, and died in April 2022 after falling ill in February. He was 69 years old. During his more than six-year tenure at Plains, the East Longmeadow resident had quite an impact on the school district with many students, teachers and parents referring to Skala as a “beloved” administrator.

Cooke was among the school’s community members who felt Skala’s impact on the school, and initiated the proposal of renaming the school in the late principal’s honor.

“Principal Skala was an administrator that gave life to the building he so carefully watched over; providing guidance, warmth, and togetherness to the students, staff, and families that came in and out of his front doors each day,” Cooke wrote in a letter to the Gazette in 2023. “Make no mistake — those front doors were truly his front doors. He stood outside of them every morning and every afternoon greeting all who came and went, as if he was welcoming them into his own home.”

In December, MSBA invited South Hadley to complete a 270-day eligibility period. The town must form a local school building committee and organize preliminary requirements for local approval within the timeframe to be invited into the next phase.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.