PS 30 Schoolyard
Location
Jersey City, NJ
Status
Completed
Construction Completion
2023
Site Area
0.7 acres
Construction Cost
$570K
People Served
15,380
Design Consultants
ETM Associates, LLC
Special Features
Outdoor classroom, play equipment, murals, stormwater management resiliency features
PS 30 (Alexander D. Sullivan Elementary School) serves over 600 students in the Greenville neighborhood of Jersey City. The majority of the students are bilingual and qualify for the national school breakfast and lunch programs.
Working closely with the community, New City Parks identified two priorities for a new green schoolyard at PS 30: outdoor education and active recreation.
This project was the culmination of years of community, student, parent and teacher engagement led by the school’s principal, which resulted in a 3-D model of the green schoolyard created by the students through their STEM curriculum before NCP was involved. The community’s vision was to remove huge, decaying trailers and cars randomly parked throughout the asphalt covered schoolyard, and then create an outdoor garden, classroom, and gathering area. They wanted to plant trees to dampen the noise, cool the air and provide the benefits of contact with nature. And students needed an improved play area between the garden and the school with alluring, fun and appropriately challenging play equipment.
The finished schoolyard features a painted track and colorful games as well as a new playground with shade canopy and safety surface to encourage active play. The space now also includes an outdoor classroom and raised garden beds for hands-on learning. Additionally, the schoolyard includes environmental resiliency elements including bioswales and updated drainage systems. The school buildings also got an upgrade with new murals featuring plants and insects native to New Jersey by artist Louise Jones.
While welcoming PS 30’s elementary students all year round, the schoolyard also hosts city-sponsored summer camps for children from through the City’s S.P.A.R.K.S. Program.
This new green school yard has catalyzed a second wave of schoolyard transformations in Jersey City, with new projects underway at PS 12 and PS 34.
Proposed PS 30 Schoolyard Masterplan. Courtesy of Melillo Bauer Carman.
Community Partners
City Green, Jersey City Board of Education and Mayor’s Office, National League of Cities, PS 30 Parent Association
