• Sparta Township Public Schools and Sparta Township Police Department 

    Working Together for Our Students and Community

     

    There are few community partnerships that are or more essential than those between school districts and their local police departments. In Sparta Township (Sussex County) our police department has the unique responsibility of not only serving and protecting our school districts’ five schools, but also Sussex County Technical School, Sussex County Educational Services Commission, and three private schools. Protecting all of the township’s schools along with covering the rest of the township’s 38 square miles is quite a responsibility, yet our police department makes it a priority to partner with our school district in the best interest of our students and community.
     

    In addition to the traditional Uniform State Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), the Sparta Township Police Department and the Sparta Township Public Schools work together on many initiatives that benefit both entities as well as the community. Recent initiatives include:

    • June 2021- The Sparta Township Public Schools were proud to host the Sparta Township Police Department’s promotion ceremony on Cassels Field, the high school’s athletic field and stadium.

    • August 2021- Without students present, our middle school welcomed the police department into the building to perform active shooter drills.

    • August 2021- Our middle school hosted the Sparta Township Police Department’s Junior Police Academy, which included over 75 recruits and 14 mentor police officers.

    • September 2021- The elementary students of Sparta Township Public Schools created banners containing “thank you” notes from each student and presented the banners to Sparta Township first responders who paraded their emergency vehicles through each of our three elementary schools’ parking lots on 9/10. Our students and staff honored our first responders through classroom lessons and activities leading up to the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

    • September 2021- Sparta Township Council, Sparta Township Police Department, and Sparta Township Board of Education collaborated to host a 9/11 Ceremony, which honored the fallen and first responders. The ceremony was held at Cassels Field and included a welcome from Board of Education President, Ms. Kimberly Bragg, and speeches from the Mayor of Sparta Township, Ms. Christine Quinn, Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Matthew Beck, and Chief of the Sparta Township Police Department, Mr. Neil Spidaletto.

    • Chief Spidaletto also serves as the Office of Emergency Management liaison and works closely with the school district to advise on power outages, road closures, and other emergent matters. This communication ensures the safety of our students and school community when inclement weather and other emergencies might affect the safe opening of our schools.

    • Sparta Township Police Department and Sparta Township Public Schools enter into an annual shared service agreement in which the police department provides a dedicated School Resource officer (SRO) to the school district. In addition to this dedicated police officer, the police department always provides security and traffic control of our schools’ events upon request from the school district.

     

    As the safety of our students and school community is the top priority for all school leaders, we can all hope to be as fortunate as the Sparta Township Public Schools to have a police department that dedicates it’s time and resources to supporting the school district as well as the entire school community. It is with this growing and continued partnership that the safety of our students and school community will continue to be ensured.