Jerome Oberlton began as city schools chief technology officer in March 2011. In his short tenure he has been criticized for his spending habits — including $250,000 on “new floors, furniture, light fixtures, electronics and interactive whiteboards” in his basement office and thousands of dollars charged to the district for an office retreat, a Fogo de Chao dinner, baby showers, and the like.
The profligate spending — particularly at a time when the system is requesting $2.4 billion for a 10-year construction project — was embarrassing enough for city schools CEO Andres Alonso to acknowledge that the expensive renovations were a “bad judgment call.”
Oberlton is leaving Baltimore, but he’s not being run out on a rail; he’s taken a job as chief of staff for the Dallas Independent School District, where he will make $185,000.
