The Inspector General of the Chicago Public Schools concluded an investigation of Forrest Claypool, chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, and recommended that Claypool had “repeatedly lied” to cover up ethical breaches and should be fired.

Dan Mihalopoulos and Lauren FitzPatrick report in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked schools chief “repeatedly lied” and engaged in other “elaborate cover-ups . . . designed to hide improper behavior” that he and the Chicago Public Schools top attorney engaged in, the CPS inspector general alleges in a report publicly released Thursday.

In a blistering, 13-page memo he sent Tuesday to the Chicago Board of Education, CPS Inspector General Nicholas Schuler said he was “left with no recourse but to conclude” that the board should fire CPS CEO Forrest Claypool.

“Claypool greatly compounded the severity of his misconduct when he repeatedly lied to the [inspector general’s office] through two separate interviews,” Schuler wrote.

Schuler said he launched his investigation last year, prompted by a Chicago Sun-Times article that “raised the question of whether” CPS general counsel Ronald Marmer — a longtime friend of Claypool — had violated the schools’ ethics code.

The Sun-Times first reported that CPS had hired Marmer’s old firm, Jenner & Block, to work for the schools even as the firm was paying Marmer a $1 million severance package. The ethics rules prohibit CPS employees from supervising the work of contractors with whom they have a business relationship.

Schuler said Claypool and Marmer ignored the advice of six lawyers who said Marmer was violating the ethics code and instead “searched for an exonerating opinion. They got a seventh, more favorable opinion from a lawyer who was a political supporter of Claypool.

“It is that approach that was fundamentally deceptive,” Schuler said.

He also alleged that Claypool “violated his fiduciary duty under the Code of Ethics to act in good faith” toward the school board, whose members were appointed by Emanuel.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who controls the Chicago public schools, reaffirmed his support for his old friend Forrest Claypool. He said that there are two sides to every story, and he prefers Claypool’s version, not the Inspector General’s. In other words, he will instruct his hand-picked board to ignore the Inspector General’s report and recommendation.

This is yet another reason to oppose mayoral control of public schools. Too much cronyism and favoritism that should not withstand public scrutiny.