CAPS Charter School Officially Not Moving Into Mater Dei In Middletown

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — CAPS charter school will not be moving into the former Mater Dei high school in Middletown.

This was announced by Middletown Mayor Tony Perry. Glenn Holck, the business administrator for St. Mary's Roman Catholic church, which owns Mater Dei and would have been CAPS' landlord, declined to comment when this Patch reporter spoke to him Monday.

With CAPS officially out, it remains a mystery as to what will happen to Mater Dei high school, which the Mater Dei Board of Trustees closed in 2022. Enrollment had dwindled to 220 students, and the school could not cover a $1-million yearly operating deficit.

With the exception of when it was briefly used for filming of the musical remake of "Mean Girls" in 2023, the halls of Mater Dei have sat dark and empty ever since. (St. Mary's pre-school, a separate building from the high school, is still in daily use.)

But this spring, many in Middletown raised eyebrows when St. Mary's announced it had signed a lease with a charter school called College Achieve Public School (CAPS).

The plan was to bus about 140 9th-12th graders from Asbury Park/Neptune to Mater Dei. CAPS would pay St. Mary's $30,000 a month in rent, plus a $150,000 sign-on bonus, numbers never confirmed nor denied by Holck.

Except Star Ledger reporter Matthew Stanmyre published a series of bombshell reports about CAPS:

First, the Star Ledger revealed the salaries CAPS pays its top administrators, all in NJ taxpayer money meant for urban public school districts: CAPS founder and CEO Michael Piscal is paid $697,528 a year. CAPS Paterson director Gemar Mills makes $433,734 a year. Jodi McInerney, executive director of CAPS Asbury Park — who herself graduated from Red Bank Catholic — is paid $323,245.

After that report, McInerney and her husband, principal Tim McInerney, both went on administrative leave, as lawmakers called for the NJ Department of Education to investigate CAPS.

Stanmyre also reported CAPS may have manipulated a loophole for it basketball team, which pummeled the Shore Conference last winter: An NJSIAA rule allows students from outside of town if a charter school is not at full enrollment. CAPS-Asbury Park said it was not fully enrolled, and put 11 of the most highly ranked basketball players in the state on its '23/'24 team, from towns such as Trenton, Keyport, Newark and Irvington.

Critics say CAPS deliberately recruited and stacked its team with out-of-town players.

Then in May, the Asbury Park school district sued CAPS, saying CAPS siphoned $1.4 million that should have gone to Asbury public schools by enrolling dozens of teenagers who do not actually live in Asbury Park. Similar to others, they allege CAPS enrolls teenagers from across the state and lies about their residency.

Out of 338 kids enrolled in CAPS-Asbury Park for the 2023-24 school year, Asbury Park BOE says they were only able to verify 53 actually live in Asbury Park.

“It’s decimating our public school system, and enriching them,” Asbury Park board finance chair Wendi Glassman told the Star Ledger. “This is a theft of (taxpayer) funds.”

CAPS denies this. However, in an emergency legal filing in mid-May they said they are "quickly running out of state and local funds to operate."

The state Dept. of Education cannot confirm or deny if they are investigating CAPS.

Some Middletown parents not happy anyway

The Star Ledger reports aside, some Middletown parents who send their kids to St. Mary's pre-school were not happy their young children would have to share a campus and a gym with CAPS teenagers.

Middletown Township never granted CAPS its certificate of occupancy to move in.

What does the future hold for Mater Dei? Holck previously said it is very expensive for St. Mary's to maintain the Mater Dei building.

"It costs the parish $150,000 a year to keep that building, in between insurance and utilities. And it's basically sitting empty. So what do you do? As a parish, we have no money to be spared."

Charter school is bilking us out of $1M+ in taxpayer dollars, N.J. school district claims (July 11)

Lawmakers Want CAPS Investigated, As It Seeks Expansion To Middletown (May 9)

Inside the ‘astonishing’ salaries at N.J. school empire. Taxpayers foot the huge bill (May 2)

St. Mary's Plans To Bring Urban Charter School To Mater Dei Campus (April 11)

A new N.J. super team is destroying its small-school opponents. Critics are calling foul. (March 10)