A husband-and-wife team that runs an embattled charter school in Asbury Park and Neptune has used a family-owned business to produce thousands of dollars of school apparel at taxpayer expense and in direct violation of New Jersey school ethics laws, an NJ Advance Media investigation has found.
After learning of the violation, four sources familiar with the inner workings of the school said the officials began using another shuttered store as an intermediary to obscure the work being done by the family-owned business. Those purchases amounted to $143,274 between December 2021 and January 2024, invoices obtained by NJ Advance Media show.
After NJ Advance Media sent a detailed list of 18 questions to school officials on Tuesday, a school spokesman said that outside counsel had been hired and an internal investigation had been launched — but the school declined to answer any questions or address specific allegations.
The school, College Achieve Asbury Park, and the officials, Jodi and Tim McInerney, wife and husband, who serve as executive director and principal, recently became the focus of legislators after being accused of ethics and nepotism violations for the hiring of family members.
The Asbury Park institution — led by Jodi McInerney, and one of three in the burgeoning College Achieve Public Schools network — hired Tim McInerney as principal and Jodi McInerney’s mother, Maryellen Murphy, as an interventionist. A public relations firm representing the school said in April no other people with close ties to the McInerneys worked for College Achieve.
Yet NJ Advance Media also discovered two of the McInerney’s adult children have received money from the network in the past year, according to state financial disclosure filings. The children also listed College Achieve Public Schools as their current employer on their respective LinkedIn profiles; all references to College Achieve were removed from the profiles hours after NJ Advance Media sent the list of questions to school officials Tuesday.
The revelations mark the latest development in a widening scandal involving the College Achieve Public Schools empire — four state senators have recently called for a formal investigation over the ethics accusations and salaries for its top officials that far outpace other charter schools in the state.
As for the alleged clothing arrangement, sources said it dates to at least 2018. College Achieve Asbury Park purchased $29,107.25 worth of school uniforms, athletic apparel and instructional supplies from All Shore Printing between June 2018 and January 2020, according to invoices obtained by NJ Advance Media through an Open Public Records Act request.
Jodi McInerney was CEO and owner of All Shore Screen Printing and Embroidery LLC, incorporated in 2010, but now inactive, according to state business records. A company with a similar name, All Shore Printing LLC, is owned by Bart McInenery, Tim McInerney’s brother, and was incorporated in 2014, business records show. Both businesses at one time were listed at the same address in Avon.
Bart McInerney is a former baseball coach accused of sexual misconduct with students and convicted in 2017 of 10 counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Three of the 30 invoices from between 2018 and 2020 are signed by Bart McInerney, who is listed on the forms as the shop’s manager.
Purchasing supplies from the company is a violation of New Jersey’s school ethics laws, which require school officials to disclose their sources of income and any ties they or their relatives have to vendors who do business with their school, according to Christopher J. Gramiccioni, a former state and federal prosecutor. But, under the law, no school officials can use their job in a way that “creates some benefit to the school official or member of his immediate family.”
Two sources said that after College Achieve Asbury Park learned about the ethics laws,the school began submitting invoices to Suzanne Rosace, former owner of Simonetti Sports, a popular retail sporting goods shop in Wall that closed in 2020.
The orders were placed through Rosace’s company, Simonetti & Sullivan LLC, and sent to All Shore Printing to be produced, the sources said. Rosace then generated the invoices and was paid by College Achieve — but the funds ultimately made their way to All Shore Printing, according to the sources.
A high-ranking school official, who began working at College Achieve Asbury Park in 2023, said Tim McInerney told him the school was buying its clothing from All Shore Printing and his brother. The official requested anonymity for fear of retribution by the McInerneys.
Earlier during the 2023-24 school year, the official said he noticed that Jodi and Tim McInerney often seemed overly generous handing out school uniforms to students. The official said he saw them rifle through boxes of apparel, which he estimated to be several thousand dollars worth of school-embossed T-shirts, polo shirts, sweatshirts and knitted hats, and toss them to any student in need.
Then, one day, the official said he questioned Tim McInerney about the clothing.
That’s when Tim McInerney made a startling confession, the official said.
“He’s like, ‘Hey, I’m getting them from Bart,’” the official said Tim McInerney told him. “I know it’s a conflict of interest, but he throws me some money back.’”
The official said he resigned from College Achieve Asbury Park earlier this year because he was troubled by how the school was being managed.
College Achieve Asbury Park, like other public charter schools in New Jersey, receives most of its funding directly from the school districts that send children to the school. It’s one of five schools in the College Achieve Public Schools network and one of 85 charter schools statewide.
Operating in one of the lowest-income municipalities in the state, College Achieve Asbury Park, with an enrollment of 519 students, serves some of the most vulnerable students in New Jersey. Nearly 97% are Black or Hispanic, 96% are economically disadvantaged and 13% have disabilities, state data shows.
Many private and charter schools across the state require students to wear uniforms and adhere to a dress code. But students who attend College Achieve Asbury Park are required to wear “uniform shirts with the school logo, as well as outerwear with the school logo,” according to the school’s website. That appears to indicate its students must wear customized uniforms, unlike some schools that allow generic clothes that can be purchased from discount retailers. A single collared polo shirt embossed with the CAPS logo costs $22.56 in the school’s online apparel store; a long sleeve Oxford shirt goes for $28.26.
According to the official who resigned earlier this year, the clothing at All Shore Printing was purchased by the McInerneys using school funds, then sold to families through an on-site school store, or given away to those who couldn’t afford it.
The former official said he visited the screen-printing shop — a tiny, nondescript building in Neptune City next to a pizza joint — when both Tim and Bart McInerney were there folding and boxing clothes with College Achieve logos in spring 2023. He said he later observed stacks of boxes of clothing at the school with “All Shore Printing” labels.
“Tim knows where it’s coming from, because he told me,” the official said. “He even said it’s a conflict. ‘I know it’s a conflict, but we’re just getting it from him.’ I was like, ‘Wow.’”
Invoices obtained by NJ Advance Media showed College Achieve Asbury Park received school and athletic clothing from two vendors between August 2023 and April 2024: A major bulk retailer based in Dallas, and Simonetti & Sullivan LLC.
College Achieve Asbury Park paid $12,256 to the bulk retailer, and $32,817 to Simonetti & Sullivan, records show.
Between December 2021 and October 2022, College Achieve Asbury Park also made $110,457 worth of purchases from Simonetti & Sullivan, according to a second batch of invoices obtained by NJ Advance Media. The invoices included everything from 200 water bottles ($588.78) to 78 pullover jackets embroidered with the CAPS logo ($1,638).
NJ Advance Media sent a list of questions to Jodi and Tim McInerney and school officials Tuesday seeking replies to the allegations in this story.
In response, Jacob Waters, an account director from Larson Communications, a public relations firm representing the school, said: “College Achieve Public Schools has launched an internal investigation, and has hired Ricardo Solano Jr. of the law firm of Gibbons P.C. to conduct the investigation. The investigation will be completed by the end of the summer.”
He added: “On the advice of counsel, CAPS will not be providing any further response at this time.”
Rosace, who now runs a drain cleaning business in Ocean County, declined numerous requests to be interviewed for this story, including phone and text messages, emails and a visit to her home in Brick Township. She said only that her sporting goods business is still in operation, but not “as retail.”
When presented with the details of NJ Advance Media’sinvestigation, Gramiccioni, the former state and federal prosecutor, said “it would be at a minimum an appearance of impropriety to be steering business for uniforms and such to a company” that is family owned.
And if it’s determined there was deception in the filing of the invoices,Gramiccioni added, “that is straight up criminal. That would be theft by deception. That would be official misconduct.”
Family ties
The latest discovery is the most recent in astring of allegations of impropriety against the College Achieve Public Schools network, and amid demands from four state senators for a formal investigation into the charter school empire. College Achieve founder and CEO Michael Piscal earned $697,528 in total compensation, according to tax forms filed by the organization in 2023, making him by far the highest paid charter school official in New Jersey.
All told, the seven highest paid officials in the College Achieve Public Schools network made nearly $2.4 million in combined total compensation, or about 19% of the network’s $12.4 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending in June 2022, according to tax documents.
NJ Advance Media also reported last month that Jodi McInerney’s husband, Tim McInerney, serves as principal of College Achieve Asbury Park, at a salary of $165,000 per year, according to board minutes. The school also employs Jodi McInerney’s mother, Maryellen Murphy, as an interventionist and at a rate of $10,500 per year, according to board minutes.
Jodi McInerney earned $323,245 in total compensation, according to tax forms filed by the network in 2023.
When asked in April if any additional people employed by College Achieve Asbury Park had close personal ties to the McInerney family, an account director from the public relations firm representing the school said no.
“There are no other employees with close ties to the McInerney family,” the director told NJ Advance Media in an email dated April 24.
Yet in 2024 Personal/Relative Disclosure Statements filed with the state’s School Ethics Commission by Jodi and Tim McInerney and obtained by NJ Advance Media, both McInerneys wrote that two of their adult children “received income, earned or unearned, in excess of $2,000.00 during the previous calendar year” from College Achieve.
On the same forms, both McInerneys also wrote that two of their children “received a gift, reimbursement, or prepaid expense having an aggregate value exceeding $250.00.”
The children — Bailey McInerney, 21, and Timothy J. McInerney, 23 — listed actively working for College Achieve Public Schools on their LinkedIn pages. Bailey McInerney’s profile stated she worked for the institution for three years in various roles, including currently as “director of digital marketing and advertising.” Timothy J. McInerney listed more than two years of part-time experience at the school as a “social media and marketing consultant.”
All mention of College Achieve had been removed from Bailey and Timothy J. McInerney’s LinkedIn profiles hours after the school was questioned by NJ Advance Media Tuesday. NJ Advance Media preserved the previous versions of the profiles in screenshots.
This means six people related to the McInerney family — including Bart McInerney — have received money from the publicly funded charter school criticized by lawmakers for paying “outrageous” salaries to top officials.
Bailey and Timothy J. McInerney did not respond when asked for comment through LinkedIn.
It is unclear if Jodi McInerney ever declared her financial information on state ethics forms for all the years she worked at College Achieve Asbury Park. A state database shows forms she filed in 2017 and 2024, but nothing for the years in between.
Though filing the forms is mandatory for all public school officials, state officials said they had no additional forms for McInerney in response to an Open Public Records Act request for the documents filed by NJ Advance Media.
A state Department of Education spokeswoman declined comment when asked about the missing forms between 2018 and 2023, but said that “in general, the Department does reach out to a person and/or district to address instances in which appropriate documents have not been filed.”
Public officials who fail to file annual financial disclosure and ethics forms can be reprimanded or removed by the state school ethics board, according to state rules.
Bart McInerney, Tim McInerney’s brother and Jodi McInerney’s brother-in-law, has owned All Shore Printing LLC since 2014, according to business records. In May, NJ Advance Media visited the shop and a refrigerator adorned with multiple College Achieve Asbury Park magnets was visible. An employee working that day confirmed Bart McInerney works there, and that All Shore does business for College Achieve Asbury Park. When questioned about the operations, the employee declined to elaborate and did not provide his name.
According to New Jersey Department of Treasury records, Jodi McInerney was listed as the registered agent and manager for All Shore Screen Printing and Embroidery LLC. The company obtained its certification of formation from the state in February 2010, but it last filed an annual report with the state in 2014, according to records.
Bart McInerney registered All Shore Printing LLC with the state in 2014. He pleaded guilty in 2017 to 10 counts of endangering the welfare of a child for sexting with his players. The case, pending since 2007, took a number of twists and turns over the years as Bart McInerney was initially convicted by a jury, had his conviction overturned, was released from prison and was sued in connection with the death of one of his alleged victims.
Bart McInerney served two years in prison, but under provisions of the 2017 plea deal with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, was not sentenced to probation or required to register as a sex offender. Monmouth County prosecutors said they reached this deal with the approval of the victims, who wanted to move on with their lives.
Bart McInerney did not respond to a phone message left Tuesday by NJ Advance Media.
A clothing connection
Simonetti Sports, a sporting goods institution in Monmouth County, announced it was closing in a lengthy letter written by Rosace, the owner, and posted to Facebook in November 2020.
“It was a very difficult decision for me to close our 80+ year old family business,” Rosace wrote. “I hope you will wish me well and take advantage of my retirement sale.”
The store advertised its final day sale as Nov. 29, 2020 in a Facebook post. And over the next year, sporadic posts offered a few baseball bats, field hockey sticks and backpacks for sale. And then, from late 2021 on, Simonetti Sports appeared to be no more —though as of March 2024, the company, Simonetti & Sullivan LLC, is still registered with the state as an active business. (Simonetti & Sullivan LLC and Simonetti Sports are the same company, according to a review of corporate databases.)
However, a new post did appear on the Simonetti Sports Facebook page on Sept. 7, 2023 announcing, “Our new company! Zoom Drain Ocean County.”
Simonetti & Sullivan LLC was paid $143,274.28 in apparel sales to College Achieve Asbury Park between December 2021 and January 2024, according to invoices obtained by NJ Advance Media.
The address listed on the invoices for Simonetti & Sullivan LLC is Rosace’s home in Brick Township, according to property and voting records.
When NJ Advance Media called the phone number listed for Simonetti & Sullivan LLC on the invoices obtained from College Achieve Asbury Park, Rosace answered.
“Hello, Zoom Drain!” she said.
Rosace confirmed that College Achieve Asbury Park is a client. When asked what other clients the company has, Rosace said, “none of your business.”
Rosace then hung up without answering further questions.
NJ Advance Media research editor Vinessa Erminio contributed to this report.
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Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
