In the last few days, we’ve been having one of those feeding frenzies in which the powers that be who run our fair city create some manufactured crisis so we open our mouths and they collectively shovel in some bullshit.
With that, Janice Jackson joined the ranks of exalted mayoral appointees whose tenure we, the ordinary citizens, must forever praise with gratitude. ’Cause without them, we’d be lost.
And what is the lesson to be learned from Jackson’s time as school boss? Easy, the same one to be learned from when Vallas and Chico ran the show in the late 90s.
And that Mayor Rahm appointed Claypool as CEO when his mayor-appointed predecessor, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, got caught in a scandal that eventually sent her to federal prison.
And Jackson proved her usefulness to Mayor Rahm by being the front person in his political feud with Troy LaRaviere, then the principal of Blaine Elementary School.
And so, Jackson spent much of her four-year tenure as CEO not getting along with the leaders selected by the principals and teachers. Apparently, open hostility to the groups that represent your employees is seen as great leadership in Chicago.
