One of Hawke's Bay's oldest and most rapidly-growing schools is having to find other ways of fundraising after its Parent Teacher Association's biggest annual earner was cancelled at just 10 days' notice because of the
Bay View Market cancelled after Napier City Council rejects Covid plan
For the cause....Eskdale School teacher Mike Moriarty takes a dip and a splash in one of the fundraising activities at the Bay View Market in 2017. Photo / NZME
Cheer and PTA market-day convener Michelle Barnes said the funds enable the school to afford facilities not usually provided for from other sources, like a new juniors playground which is to be incorporated in a redevelopment that includes the demolition of older classrooms and building of a new 10-room block expected to start mid-2022.
![Bay View Market on a busy day in 2004 at Petane Domain. It was first held in Bay View township's main street. Photo / NZME](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/SIWZ4NKN6HOF64IVS3WWK76RHA.jpg?auth=552e95dd12166eafd888071182d1a8d090a9ba6b934313fc46f303194e5ec34a&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
"It's the children who benefit," Cheer said.
Barnes, a PTA member and whose husband recently became chairman, had more than 140 site and stallholders, many from outside Hawke's Bay, lined up and paid up when she got word 10 days ago that the plan didn't meet the requirements.
The PTA had to submit a Covid plan, in the same way it has to have a traffic management plan, because of the large crowds each year, and Barnes said the advice came "a bit late", and it would have helped if there'd been a letter earlier.
It sparked a flurry of ultimately unsuccessful activity over the next 48 hours to save the day as the PTA considered alternatives, such as moving to a major indoor venue in Napier, and even the chairman trying to contact Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins.
The disappointed organiser said councils are each doing things differently, and other markets are able to take place, including Napier's Urban Farmer's Market in Clive Square, the Napier Sunday Market on the Marine Parade reserve, and the Hawke's Bay Farmers Market at the showgrounds in Hastings and the indoors Clive Community Market, both on Sunday.
Planning included going to other markets and fair days in the central North Island to promote the event, and Barnes said: "It's six months of hard work having to be undone."
The school, which has 12 classrooms, with two more expected on-site by the end of the term, won't be going completely without, for Barnes has already had one garage sale to sell donated items that can't be kept "in the garage" for another 12 months. There's another one this weekend, and probably more after that, along with some raffles.
Cheer said that while PTA committees had disappeared in many schools around the country with the advent of Boards of Trustees, now more than 30 years ago, the PTA at Eskdale had remained strong – "not so much in numbers but in what it does and can do for the school".