CPS board chooses a permanent CEO: The Rundown
Good afternoon! It’s Thursday, and Opening Day at Wrigley Field could be interrupted by storms this afternoon. Here’s what else you need to know today.
1. The CPS Board selected Macquline King as the district’s permanent CEO
As my colleagues Sarah Karp and Emmanuel Camarillo report, this ends a protracted search for a new leader of Chicago Public Schools that started last year after CEO Pedro Martinez was fired.
The proposed contract would be effective July 1 to June 30, 2029, meaning King would lead the district well past the transition to a fully elected school board. If approved, King’s salary will start at $380,000, more than Martinez was offered. He was granted a $340,000 annual salary on a five-year contract.
Though the contract appoints her as CEO, King has a superintendent’s license, which the partly elected, partly appointed board made a requirement for the position. Those who have worked with King say she is an expert in teaching and learning, as well as building relationships and cultivating leadership.
Unlike some past CPS leaders, she does not have a background in accounting and will likely have to find a strong chief financial officer to help her navigate the district’s budget and debt. CPS is projected to face a $500 million deficit next school year and future deficits.
King started as a teacher in CPS and became a principal of Dumas Elementary School on the South Side in 2007. She served there until that school was closed in 2013. She then became principal of a North Side elementary, which took in students from a nearby closed school. [WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times]
2. Months overdue, Downtown’s State Street Bridge is set to reopen tomorrow
The bridge has been closed for nearly a year of emergency repairs, adding to Downtown traffic woes, David Struett reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.
First constructed in 1949, it was one of four bridges closed for repairs or replacement in the last year. The closures have caused headaches for commuters and complaints from some City Council members who have pressured the Transportation Department for greater transparency around planned bridge closures.
City officials expected the State Street Bridge repairs to take seven months when the bridge was suddenly closed to traffic in April 2025 for emergency repairs. But engineers discovered the bridge was in worse shape than first thought.
The bridge is one of several Downtown bascule bridges that can be raised to allow river traffic to pass underneath. According to CDOT, the repairs included replacing the bridge’s center locks and its center joint, realigning the bridge leaves, fixing the State Street viaduct and sidewalks just north of the river and replacing the bridge’s floorbeam and bracing. [Chicago Sun-Times]
West Suburban Medical Center is temporarily shutting its doors and furloughing “many” employees as it struggles to pay staff, my colleague Kaitlin Washburn reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Manoj Prasad, the CEO of Resilience Healthcare, said yesterday the Oak Park hospital’s emergency room, inpatient units and clinics are closing, “effective immediately.” He blamed the hospital’s year-old electronic medical record system “that has never functioned correctly” for the payroll issues.
He did not say when the safety net hospital, which has 234 beds, would reopen.
This comes seven months after Resilience Healthcare shuttered its other facility, Weiss Memorial Hospital in the Uptown neighborhood. Like Weiss, West Suburban serves a high percentage of patients who rely on Medicaid health insurance for people with low incomes or Medicare for seniors, according to the most recent state data. [Chicago Sun-Times]
4. A new sign at Navy Pier celebrates the Route 66 centennial
U.S. Route 66 is a cultural landmark that holds the rich history of America’s automotive and commercial boom and the memories of countless family road trips, WBEZ’s Somer Van Benton writes.
Yesterday, the city honored the storied highway, spanning 2,400 miles between Chicago to California, by unveiling a new sign marking the symbolic start of the route at Navy Pier outside Harry Caray’s Tavern.
The officially recognized start in Illinois has moved at least twice before. Multiple signs honor those locations, including one at Adams Street and Wabash Avenue. [WBEZ]
5. A foundation’s role remains a mystery as Lincoln artifacts are poised to be auctioned off
Notable items include a bust of Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg previously owned by Marilyn Monroe, another bust of President Ulysses S. Grant in a general’s uniform and locks of hair purportedly taken from the head of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth after he was fatally shot during a manhunt.
These were once owned by wealthy West Coast historian and Lincoln collector Louise Taper, who sold her collection in 2007 to what is now the Lincoln Presidential Foundation for $23 million with hopes her artifacts would become state property and forever displayed at the state-run presidential museum in Lincoln’s hometown.
Instead, many of her iconic pieces of Lincolniana have landed in the hands of unknown buyers after an auction last May raised nearly $8 million. More may be going that way, WBEZ contributor Sam Naftzger reports.
Taper was sharply critical of that last auction and said she was “appalled” at the foundation’s willingness to sell off pieces of her prized collection. Neither the foundation nor Freeman’s would confirm if today’s auction included more items from Taper’s former collection and, if so, what the rationale was behind selling more Lincoln artifacts. [WBEZ]
Here’s what else is happening
- Here’s a map of which U.S. airports have the longest security lines right now. [NBC News]
- Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared in a New York City courtroom as he tries to get his drug trafficking indictment thrown out. [AP]
- Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson vetoed a plan to freeze the subminimum wage for tipped workers. [Chicago Sun-Times]
- Tomorrow’s funeral for Michael Altman, a Chicago firefighter killed in a Rogers Park blaze earlier this month, was canceled after his wife went into labor today. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Oh, and one more thing …
Today, experiencing art in Chicago is merely a matter of stepping outside to see a beautiful mural or visiting institutions like the Art Institute or the DuSable Museum. This got one artist and Curious City listener wondering about the very beginnings of art on display in Chicago. What was the city’s first art gallery?
Answering this question requires a journey back to 1840s Chicago, to understand what was considered a gallery then and who was included in those spaces, WBEZ’s Erin Allen writes.
Back then, many exclusive spaces called themselves galleries. According to Anne Helmreich, director of the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, these were often places for patrons to see expensive art for sale, such as an auction house or an art dealer. Many focused on fine art, such as sculptures, paintings and prints. The exhibitions were often marketed to a formally educated, middle- to upper-class audience. Entry often cost 50 cents, which Helmreich said was “not entirely cheap.” [WBEZ]
Tell me something good …
What song gives you a pick-me-up when you need it most?
Paul writes:
“‘Ready to Take a Chance Again’ by Barry Manilow. When I was in college and couldn’t find a girl willing to date me more than once or twice, that song lifted my spirits. Years later, after college, I met and married a wonderful woman, and we were together for almost 39 years until she passed away. I thought I’d be alone for the remainder of my life, but I am indeed ready to take a chance again, recently proposing to a great woman who’s agreed to marry me this fall.”
Chris writes:
“I don’t have just one song that’s a pick-me-up, but anything by ABBA does it for me. ‘Mamma Mia’ can really lift my spirits and get me going!”
Betsy writes:
“‘I Like to Move It’ by will.i.am is the best song to turn on when I really don’t feel like moving it. My kids and I will use it to motivate end-of-the-day clean up time. No matter what mood I’m in at the start of the song, by the end I’m smiling and dancing and (it has to be said) moving.”
And Stephanie writes:
“‘Here comes the sun’ [by The Beatles] instantly lifts me up.”
Feel free to email me, and your response may be included in the newsletter this week.
Discussion in the ATmosphere