NORTHAMPTON — A Jackson Street School custodian was arrested Wednesday for allegedly stealing more than $380 from donation jars, cash boxes and desks in the school.
Jonathan Aponte, 34, of Holyoke, pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court Thursday to charges of larceny over $250 by a single scheme and possession of a class B drug. He was released on conditions that he stay away from the school.
“The employee has been placed on paid administrative leave while the district conducts its own investigation which will be in parallel to the police investigation,” Northampton Public Schools Superintendent John Provost said Thursday afternoon. “We would just assure parents that the district will thoroughly investigate the alleged crimes and take whatever actions are appropriate to safe guard the students as well as the tangible property of the district.”
Aponte was hired in January, according to court documents.
Northampton Police began investigating the alleged thefts Monday, May 15, after being contacted by the elementary school’s principal, Gwen Agna.
Agna reported cafeteria staff had found approximately $46 missing from a locked file cabinet in a locked office, Officer Robert Moriarty wrote in his report. The money, used in the cafeteria’s cash register, was secured by employees before they left for the weekend, according to the report.
Cash had been taken on two prior occasions from donation boxes left in another office but Agna had not reported it to police previously because she said there was no way of identifying who had taken it, Moriarty wrote.
At the beginning of May, staff first noticed that approximately $18 in cash had been taken from a donation jar left on the counter in the front office, Detective Jared LaValle wrote in his report.
Shortly after that incident, a teacher reported that approximately $50 was taken from a donation jar in her classroom, LaValle wrote.
The donations were being collected to purchase a water bottle filler for the school.
On May 18, Agna again called police to report an attempted break into the school nurse’s medicine cabinet. The school’s head janitor told police he believed the key to the cabinet may have been bent before the recent thefts and “there were no signs of forced entry” nor did it appear to be entered as “nothing was missing,” LaValle wrote.
Agna told officers the school has a three-member janitorial staff, and both evening janitors — one of whom was Aponte — worked a special event the previous weekend. One of the evening janitors, a woman, was on duty when Agna called police and officers came to school to question the woman.
Moriarty wrote that the woman was unaware of keys to the filing cabinet and that she was unaware that there was money locked inside.
“After speaking with her I felt comfortable that she was not involved,” Moriarty wrote.
Moriarty was unable to reach Aponte at the time.
On May 30 , cafeteria staff noticed that the cafeteria office had been rifled through but nothing appeared to be missing, LaValle wrote. The same thing happened two weeks later in a classroom.
Two days later, Agna discovered that $250 in cash had been taken from the school’s garden box which was stored in the locked confidential records closet, according to LaValle’s report.
On June 16, more than $8 was reported missing from another teacher whose coin purse had been taken as well an envelope containing $8 for an after-school program, LaValle wrote. The school also reported $10 missing from a donation jar in the front office.
On that day, Agna and the head custodian told officers they suspected Aponte was taking the money as he had access to the building and he appeared to be having financial problems, according to court documents.
By the time a surveillance camera was placed in the school’s main office on June 20, a total of $382 had been taken from the school. That night, the camera caught Aponte taking $5 out of a donation jar that had been intentionally left there, according to LaValle’s report.
Police brought Aponte in for questioning on Wednesday. Aponte initially denied taking the $5 but when shown the picture he told LaValle “it could be him (Aponte),” according to the report.
Aponte admitted to taking a total of about $40 from the office donation jars over the course of about two weeks but denied further incidents, LaValle wrote.
When Aponte was taken to the Hampshire County Jail and House of Corrections, an officer found a “small packet containing a white powdery substance” in Aponte’s wallet, which resulted in the drug possession charge, according to court documents.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.