A pair of top state lawmakers and a state education advocacy group issued vigorous calls Monday for a statewide investigation into the College Achieve Public Schools (CAPS) network, following an investigation by NJ Advance Media last week that revealed top officials at College Achieve Asbury Park have used a family business to produce thousands of dollars of apparel for the school.
State Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, who serves on the Senate Education Committee, described the investigation as “very disturbing.” And state Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, said “the state Department of Education, and any other applicable agency, needs to investigate College Achieve to the fullest extent.”
Meanwhile, the New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association, the state’s leading advocacy group for publicly funded charter schools, said that, if true, the allegations in the NJ Advance Media report were “indefensible.”
Gopal, Sarlo and Harry Lee, the Charter Schools Association’s president and CEO, all called upon the state to undertake an immediate investigation.
“I just hope this school is an outlier -- and not indicative of what other charter schools in New Jersey are like,” Sarlo said.
In its report last week, NJ Advance Media detailed how College Achieve Asbury Park’s two top officials, wife and husband Jodi and Tim McInerney, have used a screen printing company owned by Tim’s brother, Bart McInerney, to produce school uniforms and athletic apparel at taxpayer expense, in violation of state ethics rules and despite previous claims that no other family members were benefitting financially from College Achieve Asbury Park.
Bart McInerney is a former high school coach whose career ended in scandal after he was convicted of multiple counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
The report also highlighted that two of the McInerney’s adult children have both received money from College Achieve within the past year, according to state financial disclosure forms.
In addition, NJ Advance Media reported that tens of thousands of dollars of additional invoices had been paid to Simonetti & Sullivan LLC, a retail sporting goods store that appeared to have shuttered in 2020, though its owner, Suzanne Rosace, claims that the company is still in business, “just not retail.”
When presented with NJ Advance Media’s findings, the College Achieve network announced that it had obtained outside counsel and was launching an internal investigation — but declined to answer any questions.
All of this follows on the heels of an earlier NJ Advance Media investigation which showed that officials at the College Achieve network, overseen by founder and CEO Michael Piscal, are receiving salaries far higher than comparable schools across the state.
In a statement sent to NJ Advance Media, Gopal — who represents the district where College Achieve Asbury Park is located — said: “The NJ.com story about the owners of College Achieve Asbury Park using a business owned by family members in the district to produce thousands of dollars of school apparel at taxpayer expense is very disturbing.”
“In addition to the prior allegations of nepotism in hiring family members for top administrative positions and other jobs in the College Achieve schools, the latest assertion that College Achieve owners purchased school uniforms, athletic apparel and instructional supplies from another family member’s business compounds my concerns.”
Gopal added: “Taking advantage of taxpayers in the Asbury Park school district, a public school district which already has significant challenges, seems especially egregious if the NJ.com assertions are true. For that reason, I am once again asking the Department of Education to look into the financial actions of College Achieve Asbury Park and take action to investigate any mismanagement of funds.”
In a statement to NJ Advance Media, Lee said, “Whether it is student achievement or the management of our schools, New Jersey’s public charter school sector strongly believes in accountability. This accusation, if true, is indefensible. The New Jersey Public Charter Schools Association supports a comprehensive investigation by the State into these matters.”
College Achieve Public Schools, founded in 2014 by Piscal, operates nine schools across the state, serving approximately 3,200 students, and is funded almost entirely through taxpayer funds. In earlier reporting, NJ Advance Media revealed the CAPS network has devoted nearly 20% of its revenue to paying the salaries of its seven highest paid officials, including Jodi McInerney, who earned $323,245 in total compensation, and Piscal, who earned $697,528 in total compensation, according to tax forms filed by the organization in 2023.
Four lawmakers — Gopal, Sarlo, state Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, and state Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex — previously called for a state investigation into salaries that have been characterized by experts as “astonishing” and “shockingly high.”
Sarlo said Monday it’s “ironic” the College Achieve network initially came under scrutiny for recruiting allegations surrounding its high-powered boys basketball program, which controversially won a state title in its first season of existence. Those allegations also were uncovered by an NJ Advance Media investigation from March.
“It’s amazing how their quest to become a national high school basketball power led to all these other allegations coming to the surface,” Sarlo said.
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Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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