PVSC Chairman Thomas Tucci was recently joined by Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr., the Nutley Educational Foundation, and the Nutley Public School District to announce that the outdoor classroom and amphitheater in Essex County Yanticaw Park has been completed. The learning facility is located on the bank of the Third River and can be used by all grades K-12. 

“We are pleased to partner with Essex County and the Nutley School system to create this outdoor classroom,” said Chairman Tucci (right). “We hope that Nutley children and residents of Essex County will be able to use and enjoy this unique learning environment for years to come. Our goal is to help give children the opportunity to spend more time outdoors, especially in a natural setting. An outdoor classroom should give them opportunities to interact with nature, study the environment or study any school subject for that matter.”    

Construction was started in July and completed in about three months by PVSC. The facility was modeled after a similar PVSC-constructed outdoor learning center at Bloomfield's Clark's Pond. It consists of four tiers of seating, approximately 30 feet in width, built into the natural slope of the park. There is enough seating to accommodate about 75 students. Reclaimed wood was used to create a podium in front of the stadium seating. When seated in the amphitheater, students are looking toward the Third River. In addition to the creation of the seating area, overgrown brush in the area was removed and new landscaping and additional trees have been planted.