Pope John XXIII Regional High School is a Roman Catholic high school in Sparta, in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. The school was founded in 1956, originally as Our Lady Of The Lake School and is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson. The school name was changed to honor Pope John XXIII after his death in 1963. The school has been accredited by AdvancEd since 2010. As of the 2019–20 school year, the school had an enrollment of 667 students and 58.1 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.5:1. In 2016, grades 5-7 at the Rev. George A. Brown Elementary School were moved into the newly built Pope John XXIII Middle School, which shares its campus with the high school. To do this the schools of Immaculate Conception Regional School (in Franklin), Saint Joseph's Regional School (in Newton) and Saint Michael's Regional School (in Netcong) were all closed and merged into Pope John Middle School. Philosophy and coursework Pope John XXIII Regional High School has a Catholic philosophy in accordance with Church teaching. The school also has a college prep course of study in academic subjects. Students are required to not only take state required courses but an additional year of Math and Science. Theology coursework is required for every marking period a student is enrolled at the school. Two years of a foreign language such as Spanish, French, Italian, and Latin are also required as well as computer courses. Seventeen Advanced Placement (AP) courses are offered. An eighth grade honors program for math, history, english and science is also offered The math and science taught to the eighth grade honors students is also taught to the freshman. The school's music department was founded in the mid-1970s by John-Michael Caprio, who would go on to be director of music at New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral in the 1990s. In addition to the eighth grade honors program for area Catholic schools, Pope John launched their own eighth grade class in the 2009–2010 academic year, but only accepted eighth grade students who were previously from public schools. Like most Catholic schools, students are required to wear uniforms. The uniform policy is often strictly enforced to ensure students live up the proper standard expected of them by the administration and faculty. Uniforms, for example, include uniform dress shoes, ties (for boys), and dress pants