CPS Finally Has a Permanent Leader. Plus, Broadview Calls to Close ICE Facility

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Today on CityCash, Chicago, it looks like CPS finally has a new CEO.

The broadview mayor wants the local ice facility shut down.

And who the hell is actually eating Nashville hot chicken?

It's Monday, March 30th, I'm Jacobi Cochran, and this is what Chicago is talking about.

I've got executive producing some more, I'll at least say I'm back in the build of

some more.

I'm doing okay.

How are you Jacobi?

I'm doing good.

I'm doing good.

I'm actually really excited to hear that a vacancy that's been here for about 10 months

is finally field.

I mean, by the time people are hearing this, Chicago school board probably has officially

named in term CEO, Macklin King as the permanent CEO.

Simone, can you talk about how we finally got here because this was a start and stop process?

Boy, boy, was it.

I guess where do you want to start?

Do we want to start with the sort of insane ousting, just insane in terms of process of

CEO Pedro Martinez?

Do we want to talk about Macklin King overseeing this crazy budget deficit last summer?

Do we want to talk about how there was a list of finalists and then there wasn't a list

of finalists?

Do we want to talk about board members accusing the mayor of sabotage?

Where do you want to start here, Jacobi?

It kind of feels like you just did a quick run through, but I do think I do think it would

be helpful to go back to former CEO Pedro Martinez because in fact, Macklin King applied

for that job back in 2021 and they went with Martinez.

Yeah.

So, yeah, to your point, back in 2021, under then mayor, Lori Lightfoot.

And of course, this is how many school boards ago at this is the point where the mayor is

appointing everyone on the school board and so the selection of CEO is treated very much

like a mayoral apartment with kind of appointment with a rubber stamp, right?

And so, Lightfoot taps Pedro Martinez, King had applied for it.

She didn't get it, but Lightfoot did hire her as a deputy mayor of education, which King

maintained that position when Johnson was elected in 2023.

So, the other thing that happens in 2023, Johnson replaces most of the school board, right?

Then we get to summer of 2024.

There's a big budget fight and the mayor is not happy with Martinez on this budget

fight, is really upset about it.

At one point is trying to push the school board to fire Martinez, a school board, they don't

want to fire Martinez.

So, what does Johnson do right before the election for the partially elected school board?

Johnson, they all go, they all leave on mass, appoints a new school board right around

the time we're voting.

That new school board in December of 2024 is like we're, like it's the weekend before

Christmas is like we're firing Pedro Martinez, turns out, if you do that, they fired him

without cause.

So, he's still on the job for the rest of the school year for six more months.

So, you know, 2025, the partially elected school board is seated.

You get to June, Martinez is out and they tap Johnson's deputy mayor of education,

Mackle and King, to be the interim CEO in the summer of 2025.

Again, she oversees another really tense budget negotiation with a big deficit issues over

pensions.

Dr. Mackle and King has a long history in CPS was a CPS teacher was the principal of

a Dumas Elementary and went through those massive school closures in 2013.

Her school was closed down.

She becomes the principal of a north side school, which at the time was also taking in

students from a nearby close down school.

You mentioned being a part of both life and mayor Johnson's administration and has the

superintendent's license, which became a requirement for whoever was going to be the

permanent CEO and a lot of people point to that 10 or so months on the job having to

deal with the budget debates, having to deal with operation midway blitz and the chaos

that that spewed across the city and had a deep impact on students and their families

and school communities, but also people point to the fact that she wasn't a rubber stamp

for Mayor Brandon Johnson came in and you know, in addition to wanting Martinez out one

of those reasons is because he wanted Martinez to borrow to help pay back the city's early

pension payment when Maclin King was in and they were going through 10s budget debates.

The mayor also wanted CPS to borrow again and King pushed back on that plan and I think

a lot of school board members appreciated the fact that it didn't feel like this was

someone who was just going to do whatever Mayor Johnson had passed down.

Yeah, and you know, this I think what is interesting in this process is you know, the sort

of lines of like who is supporting whom and what people want to do, haven't always been

super clear, right? And so like in the fall of 2025, there were some leaked names, leaked

finalist names and I believe King wasn't on that list and that caused kind of an uproar

among some folks in the education sphere who felt like, you know, why are we not considering

this internal candidate who has been doing the job like why is she not on at least on the

finalist list? Then the board had kind of walked that back. Actually, this aren't finalists.

I think one of the finalists was someone out of Denver who was like, no, I'm not planning

to leave like this don't I'm not included in this, right? And so that was kind of scrapped.

And then, you know, a little bit earlier this year, some board members, it's particularly

some elected board members said that the mayor and his appointed board members were

sabotaging the process. They accused the mayor of kind of running political interference and

using, they were working with like a like a consultant group, like an advisory group to kind of

help go through the search. Earlier this month or maybe late February, we finally got a new

finalist list, which included King along with former New York City Schools chief,

Misha Ross Porter and Sido Narciss who had most recently been with East Baton Rouge school district

there. And then Porter dropped out of the race. Make it the second time somebody has dropped

out during this process apparently. Sighting did not cite any specific reasons, although I think

she maybe was also on the first finalist list that that got I don't know like if I were a candidate

for a job and this was the process of I might reconsider too if I this is really the job I want,

you know what I mean? And in the second round, now the internal candidate is in which from my

perspective, I appreciated I was very confused that McLean King wasn't at least a finalist in that

leaked first round and given all of the reports around the the mayor running interference in the

process, people on the board, people in, you know, the NAACP Westside chapter sort of speaking out

against that. I had a sense that in this next round King may be offered and I wonder again,

there is no word from Porter, but if I wonder, you look at that finalist list and now it has one of

the internal candidates on it, you've been through months and months of this. Yeah, it's easy for

me to imagine walking away from this process. Absolutely, yeah. And again, so Sido and Rc's for

for his part, you know, there was some report, you know, now, once reporters had that finalist list,

they're sort of doing the, the diligence of trying to learn who are these candidates and what are

they about? Some reporting came out that, you know, he has a bit of a mixed record. He's held

several positions in several different cities, you know, some people really praised him, particularly

in in Baton Rouge on student performance. Students, you know, we're, we're doing pretty well on

standardized tests and sort of the metrics there, but there were a lot of people who question

his leadership style, particularly in Boston, you know, people who, who felt like he wasn't transparent

as, as you've kind of alluded to, this reporting comes out and then it's like, the school board comes

out as like, okay, we've like, there's some documents like we've made an offer and we're going to,

we have a special meeting on Monday. It's at 1030 today. So by the time you hear this, it may

have already happened and we're planning to to approve this contract for for King. And so King,

just some details, what we know about what's included in that contract, it runs from July 1 through

June 30, 2029 and her salary will start at 380,000, which is higher than what Martinez was making

when he left. He was making about 360. She has a superintendent license, which the board made a

requirement. This has been a debate in Chicago for a long time. Ever since the 90s, when we moved

to a CEO system versus a superintendent system. So unlike many of her predecessors, King doesn't have

a background in finance accounting business, which was sort of the idea in the 90s was like,

you know, we need someone to run the schools like a business and someone who's got financial

acumen, rather than someone who came up as a teacher or principal or school administrator,

that that's not necessarily the background we're selecting for. Again, we still, it's still called

a CEO. It's not called a superintendent, but this is the first time in a while where there's been a

requirement for a superintendent license. I mean, this is a critical time, not only we come into

the end of the school year, but the CPS is likely to face another half billion dollar deficit.

There is constant advocating for the state funding formula to send more money into the district.

School closure, moratorium, we're going to have to actually have real conversations about this

in the coming years. And again, especially given what's been going on with the charter networks,

right? And that's why I was going next. I was like, it is clear right now that Chicago's

charter schools across networks. We've seen multiple have to be bailed out by CPS,

closed at the end of the like schedule to close at the end of the school year or having to

shutter in the middle of the school year. And so we're going to have to have real come. Well,

I know we're having, but like that moment, the rubber is going to meet their mode road. Like,

it's going to be a real decision that's coming up for sure. It sounds like the 10 months of

king being on the job has set great relationships going into the summer. And then of course,

at the end of it all, we have a brand new school board to be elected. That we're electing this year,

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Simone, just last week we were talking about despite the fact that the surge that operation midway

blitz unleashed on our city at the end of 2025, like Border Patrol agents are still here. Ice

agents are still here carrying out enforcement efforts. The the meager watch groups are still

sending out notifications. I get them every single week. And as such, it's safe to assume that the

broad view facility, the ice processing facility that essentially became a defense has become a

de facto detention facility with very little oversight and regulations is still going. And the

broad view mayor came out in recent weeks and is really hoping people can turn their attention back

to this. It's demanding the closure of the facility. And once people to know that this is steel

causing a lot of challenges and headaches for what the town of, I don't know, what was it,

8,000 people. Now, but Simone, she's not just calling for the facility, which has been under

multiple investigations has had multiple federal lawsuits against it. A lot of coverage around

abhorrent conditions inside of it. She's not only calling for it to be closed down. But what

else is she demanding? So Mayor Katrina Thompson is asking the feds for reimbursement, 700,000

dollars to make up for operational costs and economic losses by some businesses nearby, you know,

specifically what we're talking about, we're talking about police overtime, additional

protective equipment for police officers, right? And this is surrounding, you know,

primarily the the months of midway blitz, right? When we saw protesters out there, big,

big groups of protesters. And so you had police who were out there doing crowd control, local

police out there doing crowd control. But, you know, also be like as crowds were being egged on and

sort of antagonized by the feds, these big clashes. The other important thing to keep in mind is like

the location of this facility is it's like in the middle of a neighborhood. Like there's like

houses like across the street. Like it's, it's, there's, you know, what I mean. And looking for

money to pay for the costs incurred by police overtime, some to basically pay them for the legal

cost that they incurred. The city, the village had sued if you recall over a fence that that the

feds had erected. They wanted to take that fence down because it was posing an issue to emergency

services among other reasons. And so they want the feds to pay for that. Ambulance transfers

from the ICE facility, right? So when people were in needed emergency medical care, you know,

they it was up to broadview to do those ambulance transfers. And over time, of course, for those

fire and ambulance personnel as well. So those are some of the costs. What I think is interesting

is, right, the way that Mayor Thompson is attempting to get this money back is she has sent a

letter. She sent a letter to federal lawmakers, two senators, six representatives, all Democrats

basically saying you should compensate the town, which is, you know, this is sort of interesting to

me because I, I just have a real skepticism over how far a strongly worded letter is going to get

you. 100% in two, two, two congress makers who may or may not already be on your side in an

administration that I think could not care less, frankly. But I think it's an interesting move,

and I would be curious to see if it escalates at any point in the near future to something like,

say, a lawsuit or something like that, although, you know, given that they're asking for, for

to recoup their costs on the lawsuit they've already filed, who knows?

I do think the timing is important. We saw so many candidates from Lieutenant Governor Juliana

Strattonette there, current Democratic nominee in the ninth annual base, like other lawmakers were

out there directly confronting ICE agents were calling for the facility to be closed, some said

they wanted ICE to be abolished. And so it feels like working alongside the mayor of Broadview,

working alongside the residents of Broadview to make sure they feel seen and heard in this matter

to reimburse the very small township. I don't know, it feels like, I don't want to say the least

you can do, but it feels like the least you can do. I don't they don't have any, you know,

individual control over whether or not this facility is closed down. But I do think the

parameters around, hey, this is how we were hit between you said 250,000 dollars for ambulance

transfers. That's a lot of that's a lot of money across three months.

Well, I mean, yeah, ambulances, ambulances cost a lot of money. Think about like when an individual

has an ambulance bill, right? Like it's, it's a lot of money. I've rejected a few,

I've rejected a few in my life. I'm gonna keep it real. But it does feel like the least lawmakers

can do. But I wonder in this interim period as right, we're still pursuing the general election.

I wonder how much attention current representatives are going to pay to this.

Well, and it's interesting because some of the lawmakers who received this letter are some of the

same people who, you know, wanted to inspect the broadview facility, but we're denied entry,

right? And so I wonder how much that plays into it as well. I think the other thing that's

important to keep in mind. And I always want to like pull back on the context here. Is this

facility is not supposed to be a detention facility? Exactly. It is not, it is not, it was not built

for that. It's supposed to be a quote-unquote processing facility whereby, you know, people who are

picked up by ICE or Border Patrol or, you know, where they are sort of taken to be processed,

their cases are processed. And then they're supposed to, you know, if they are being held for

detention somewhere, you know, they're sent out to another detention facility or, you know,

their release on on bond and they have to appear to immigration quarter or whatever the case might

be, right? That's that's what the purpose of this facility is. And Illinois has some of the

strictest regulations around immigrant detention on a couple of different levels. Number one,

generally, we have a moratorium on on private prisons in Illinois. So we don't have some of those,

you hear about this in other states of of privately run immigrant detention centers. We don't have

any of those in Illinois. The other thing that in Illinois is local jails cannot contract with ICE

for immigrant detention. So that used to be the case, you know, until this law was passed,

I think in 2021, you know, some of some of these, I think, McKenry and then Kank Kee counties

had contracts to, to house immigrants in detention. And that, that is no longer the case, that

can no longer happen. And so effectively, Illinois doesn't actually have immigrant detention centers

by law. But again, during operation midway blitz, and I think in the, in certainly some of the

weeks and months after, because of the volume of people who were being detained, you know, it

became one. And again, it wasn't built for that. You alluded to some of the conditions. I'm

saying people were being disappeared inside of there. People could, yeah, families couldn't find

family members who were picked up by ICE agents off the street. And there was sort of, it took

forever to track down. And they might, you know, they might be in that, that broad view facility

for weeks and weeks and weeks. And then all of a sudden, you find out that they're in a detention

center in Tennessee or Texas or whatever, right? And it became very difficult to track those

people down. You know, you had people in really, really cramped quarters, sicknesses going around.

Again, there's a reason you had all those ambulance transfers in and out of there. And so,

I think that's one thing to keep in mind when we talk about this facility and sort of what, what

role it's supposed to take and what it's supposed to be doing versus what was actually happening

and what has actually been happening. There is currently a bill that lawmakers in Springfield

are considering that just advanced, I think, to ban detention centers near homes and schools,

federal detention centers. And I think facilities like this processing facility, because again,

as I pointed out, this facility is like in the middle of a neighborhood. It wouldn't do anything to

any existing centers. But it's also interesting because it's also not clear that a ban like this

would pass constitutional muster, because the feds sort of have quite a lot of leeway

and aren't necessarily subject to the same local zoning laws that others are. And so,

there's a lot of questions as to how effective this would be. We do know that the feds have been

looking, or at least in the fall were, and I don't know to what degree that has continued, but

we're looking for more space to lease, right? We're looking for more spaces to kind of set up shop.

And so, you know, I think that's going to continue to be a tension under this administration.

So apparently today is National Hot Chicken Day Accordination. I don't know

somebody who makes up fake holidays for a living and it's meant to honor not only Nashville hot chicken,

but all of the restaurants in and around the city and country that are serving it up. And

since I got back to Chicago in 2015, I have just seen more of these year after year from it,

the from restaurants that are completely dedicated to it. I remember Bud Long around the corn

from my crib. I have part not sure it's still there, but also it's popping up on more menus.

Like I know Luella Southern Kitchen, they got a brunch where you can get the hot chicken and

waffle. Simone, is this time you get down on? I, you know, it's really funny because up until,

I guess I had never like clocked entirely that like Nashville hot chicken was kind of its own

thing. I was like, you know, a fried chicken sandwich, a spicy fried chicken sandwich is a spicy

fried chicken sandwich is a spicy fried chicken sandwich and we can debate about which which places

we like more. But it's funny because I do feel like I was seeing it more in brand, you know,

Dave's hot chicken, I think was the big one. They come into Chicago and I've expanded a lot in

Chicago. And I feel like I'm seeing it a lot more in branding over the past several years. And I

was like, I was like, have I tried Nashville hot chicken? I don't know. And I don't think I have

because I do think it is something specific after digging and doing some reading. It is a very

specific thing in both, you know, how it's prepared, right? The way that the spicy sauce, you know,

it's a fat-based sauce that you kind of drench the chicken in directly after frying as opposed to,

you know, like a buffalo chicken sandwich where you know, you're drenching the sauce kind of

after it's already been fried and cooled maybe even just on the bread or like a spicy rub that

you're frying the chicken in, right? That is a little different. But of course, also in its

just in its origins, right? It has a very kind of specific history.

Yeah, I have tried it twice. Once in Chicago and one actually in Nashville and be honest,

I didn't like it either time. What didn't you like about it?

I don't know. I feel like I got the version that was like it was trying to think like I got

like maybe an extra hot. It was the breading like every bite was like spicy on my lips and my

tongue. Yeah, it's very hot. It's a very hot sandwich. Yeah, like I'm here for the chicken. I want

my breading. I want my sauce to be complimentary. I'm not really here for what feels like

challenge food. And again, that's just just my personal ballot. I don't mind a little hot,

a little spicy, but yeah, I'm not really here trying to challenge how hot of a sandwich I could

possibly eat. And so yeah, I prefer me some some remiss, some heralds. I will say I love the chicken

over at BBQ in Chinatown. That's probably my like go to that isn't like some who is staple right now.

I think yeah, it's I think it's interesting. You point that out because I think that is one of

the hallmarks of the Nashville chicken sandwich or hot chicken sandwich is just it is supposed to be

very, very spicy and it has there's sort of a you know, the there's sort of a mythology around

the the origin and you know, I think the the sort of spot that claims to be the in Nashville that

claims to be the original place where you know, it was a woman who you know, her husband had been

out at night and kind of fooling around and messing around and she served it. She took and made

something really spicy to kind of get revenge on him. And that was the sort of origin story of

the hot chicken sandwich. I think the other thing about this that strikes me is like, you know,

this is another one of those trends that's like, yeah, black folks in the south have been making

hot spicy chicken for a really long time friends for like a really long time for like a really long time.

Anytime we start Columbus and something into like a broader national trend, I usually stop paying

attention and turn away. I didn't really piece two and two together with this one. I think just

the Nashville of it all sort of made me turn away. But the idea is that it's trying. Yeah, I mostly

focused on that aspect and the fact that all these country bars was popping up, but the gentrification

of southern hot chicken is definitely a crime that's all right. Well, it's sort of a double gentrification

in Chicago, I guess, right? Because you have the original the original sin in Nashville of like,

you know, people kind of capitalizing on this and making this kind of like a hot trendy thing for

white folks and for newcomers to the city. And then you have in Chicago, the import of this

Nashville trend, right? Uh, when we already have our own culture of fried chicken and mild sauce

or whatever the case might be, right? Like it's sort of like gentrification types too. Yeah,

to get get out of here. I don't want that. I like, I like my chicken like with a nice little sweet

tangy sauce. And I can't. I've just for those who enjoy it good for you, but every time I look at a

piece of Nashville hot chicken, I'm one, I'm just like, it's the color profile. I'm like, I'd

much rather have some tend to it. It is aggressive. That looks like that. But yes, it looks intimidating

on the other end. Although, I guess I would say like if you're a hot Cheetos kind of person,

like, I don't think that color is going to be intimidating to you. I hear you hot. Uh, yeah.

I feel like how Cheetos got a little more of an invite color. Like this thing, at least the picture

I'm looking at right now, this thing looks painful. Just, uh, well, and you can see all the chili

peppers, the chili pepper, the season stuff too. Um, you know what you know for here? As far as

spicy chicken sandwiches go, um, a spot I really like is Lucy's, uh, which has a location here in

uptown. And then I believe in a humble park as well. Um, and it's interesting because like,

that it's a, it's got a good kick to it. It's pretty spicy. Um, but it doesn't even, you know,

and that's their standard chicken. They don't have like a mild version. It's, it's, and it's just

in the rub. It's just in the, it's not a sauce at all. Um, and that is one I really like. And they do

a sandwich. Um, oh god, it's delicious. They do. So it's the fried chicken with American cheese

and bacon jam on top, uh, on a brioche bun. Oh, and coleslaw. That's really good. It's really

delicious. I, it does hurt me. I don't always, I don't always come out victorious in the end,

but I do like it. That's the thing. I'm not trying to American, uh, ninja warrior with my chicken.

That just seems too much. But it's so good going, but it feels so good on when, when you start

Jacobi. It's so nice. I'm not even believing the way you describe it. No, it is. I'll creep

up on some spicy. I'm trying to think BBQ has a, I'm trying to think is it a sweet Thai chili,

a gochujang sauce, which is pretty hot and spicy. Um, but, but, you know, again, not, not as terrible

as, uh, the last time I had the, the Nashville hot chicken. So again, if you celebrate

today, good for you. Seems like these places continue to pop up. I know one just opened up in

Wrigley view. Who is that? Hatties? Yeah. Hattie bees, which I think is originally from Nashville,

as I recall, which again, speaks to the Nashvilleification of, of Wrigley Valley. You should go check

out our, our video and article about that. If you are interested in getting the, the Nashville,

some of the Nashville hot chicken that has popped up around Chicago in the past several years,

we're going to have an article on our website, Chicago dot city cast out of fem our newsletter editor,

Emmy Mac, uh, is around and up those spots with some more history of, uh, how, how this came to be.

Hey, we, our phone lines are always open. We want to hear for y'all y'all filling Nashville hot

chicken or no seven, seven, three, seven, eight, zero, zero, two, four, six. I want to give a huge thank

you to our executive producer, Simone Aliceia. Hey, thanks, Jacobi.

Before we get out of here, you know, we got some good news for you. Get your April started off

right with the shed aquarium. They've got a free admission day tomorrow and then on Wednesday,

they're hosting a litter cleanup and coastal habitat restoration at 12 street beach. I'm a drop

links for you in the show notes. I know, Earth Day is a couple of weeks away, but if you check out

our events calendar, we're going to have plenty of events just like this all month long. As always,

we appreciate you for listening and reading. We're going to be back bright and early tomorrow,

we'll talk to you then. Peace.