SNEED: What’s next for former CPS CEO Forrest Claypool?

SHARE SNEED: What’s next for former CPS CEO Forrest Claypool?
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Forrest Claypool was replaced by Janice Jackson as CEO of Chicago Public Schools. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

The Three Amigos . . . 

Ai! Yi! Yi!

Sneed hears the abrupt “resignation” Friday of Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool caused the gnashing of teeth of his two devastated best buddies: Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CNN star/former Dem political strategist David Axelrod — who have been enmeshed figuring out Claypool’s best exit strategy.

(Sneed hears rumbles Doug Kucia, Claypool’s chief of staff, had been shopping around his resume the past few months.)

“Rahm and David and Forrest are three peas in a pod. They’d never, ever leave Claypool behind,” said a source close to the three men.

OPINION

So here’s the big question.

Will Claypool now get involved in Axelrod’s highly successful Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, where David is looking for a new executive director?

Stay tuned.

Sneedless to say . . .

The Rahmster may not be happy with Claypool’s exit for misconduct, but choosing CPS’ Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson as his replacement is being described as a brilliant re-election campaign strategy.

“She’s phenomenal . . . an African-American woman who lights up the stage,” said a top CPS source, who is also a huge fan of Claypool’s.

Ka-ching!

Former Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy, who is neck deep in testing the waters for a mayoral bid against his nemesis, Mayor Emanuel, was spotted making the rounds of top pol holiday parties last week — including powerful Ald. Edward Burke’s annual fundraiser bash.

The first trumpette . . . 

First Lady Melania Trump may have let the press know she’d like to spend Christmas on a “deserted island” with her family, but she also let slip what she and her ostensibly evangelical Protestant husband do on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. They go to (Roman Catholic) mass.

Bagging it!

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas is hitting the campaign trail this season — armed with 100,000 bags!

Whoaaaa.

And the large white plastic totes — otherwise known as campaign literature — don’t even state what office she is seeking.

They just state: “Maria Pappas bag.”

“The bags are jumping off my arm like hotcakes,” she told Sneed.

“I’m just having fun,” Pappas said while strolling down Michigan Avenue early Thursday morning.

“The bags have my name on them and that’s it,” said Pappas, who is running for her sixth term in office as Cook County treasurer after serving 19 years in that spot.

“When I first ran for office as a Cook County Board commissioner, I handed out 200,000 pieces of soap advising people to clean up county government.

“Elections can get ugly — and I just wanted it to be innovative and fun.

“It’s not fun backstabbing — and I want things to be amusing. I once did bookmarks of adorable me as a child and an adult stating ‘Maria Pappas. Honest then. Honest now.’

“I’m still not telling people what I am running for. They know it. They know me. I’m hitting the road, Jack . . . and getting out there for Christmas. It’s fun.

“And, by the way, just for the record. I’m ordering 100,000 more and the bags are stamped with a union bug!”

Sneedlings . . . 

Saturday’s birthdays: Kirk Douglas, 101; Donny Osmond, 60; and Lori Greiner, 48. . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Bobby Flay, 53; Teyana Taylor, 27; and Matt Forte, 32.

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