A pair of New Jersey state senators are calling on the state Department of Education to open an inquiry into a public charter school network accused of ethics and nepotism violations and paying its executives what have been described as “astonishing” salaries, NJ Advance Media has learned.
State Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, and State Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, said the charter network — College Achieve Public Schools, known as CAPS — should be required to answer questions about how its revenue, which originates through taxpayer dollars, is being spent, among other inquiries.
“I’m calling upon the state Department of Education to call in the leadership of this school district and have them open their books to see what the public money is being used for, and then make a recommendation to the legislature,” Sarlo said. “Clearly the overhead and salaries are outrageous.”
“When you’re dealing with a public institution, public funds should be spent with the child’s desk at the classroom,” Ruiz added. “The numbers appear to be extraordinarily high in light of what some of our greatest administrators make here in the state.”
The state Department of Education did not immediately response to emails seeking comment Friday.
The movement comes the day after NJ Advance Media published an investigation showing CAPS executives to be the highest paid charter school officials in New Jersey, as well as nepotism and ethics allegations regarding one institution in the network.
CAPS founder and CEO Michael Piscal earned a base salary of $444,714 and $252,814 in deferred compensation and retirement benefits, according to tax forms filed by the organization in 2023. Meanwhile, Gemar Mills, the executive director of College Achieve Paterson, earned $433,734 in total compensation, and Jodi McInerney, the executive director of College Achieve Asbury Park, earned $323,245 in total compensation, according to tax forms. Three other CAPS officials earned more than $209,000 in total compensation, tax forms show.
College Achieve Asbury Park also was accused of nepotism and ethics violations by hiring McInerney’s husband and mother as principal and interventionist at the school.
“This is another area where either legislatively or the department has to look at,” said Ruiz, the Senate majority leader.
CAPS denied any nepotism or ethics violations, saying the principal job was posted publicly and the interim Monmouth County superintendent signed off on both hires.
The network also said that because Piscal, Mills and McInerney are not traditional public school employees eligible for the state pension or benefits, CAPS pays compensation they said is comparable to other senior public education employees in New Jersey. Piscal, Mills, McInerney and other senior executives work for College Achieve Public Schools, Inc., a charter management organization (CMO) that oversees the schools in the network.
In response to the NJ Advance Media reporting, New Jersey Education Association communications director Steven Baker said his organization has “long called for charter schools to be held to the same high standards of accountability and transparency that all other New Jersey public schools must meet.”
All of this comes on the heels of another NJ Advance Media investigation from March showing that College Achieve Asbury Park’s varsity basketball team — in its first season of existence — utilized a loophole that allows for students to attend a charter school outside the town in which they live if the charter school is not at full enrollment. College Achieve packed its roster with 11 elite transfers from across New Jersey, prompting the state athletic association and even lawmakers to propose an overhaul of state rules and regulations.
“The ironic part here is their effort to build a superpower high school basketball team brought the whole institution into the spotlight,” Sarlo said. “Now that you peel back the onion, you see there’s a lot more to it.”
Ruiz said CAPS first got on her radar after it put together its dominating basketball team, which included adding three players from Payne Tech, a Newark school in her district.
“When you’re talking about poaching kids who are an hour’s distance away, there are a lot of questions that are starting to arise with this particular institution,” Ruiz said. “Certainly I would support the chairman’s initiative in asking the DOE to take a deeper dive.”
Our journalism needs your support. Please consider subscribing to NJ.com.
Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
