Kendall County Times

The 27-year Professional Development Alliance (“PDA”) of the Will County and Grundy Kendall County Regional Offices of Education officially dissolved over the weekend and its website was promptly removed from public viewing on January 1, 2024.

The PDA has been the subject of several articles of ours since October 20, 2023, mainly focused on the 2017 contract it entered into with Vista Learning, which placed the public body as an independent 1099 contractor for Vista. The PDA also had its employees working most or all of their time for the contractor while claiming Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (“IMRF”) eligibility as government employees. Additionally, the contractor gifted more than $874,000 in bonuses to government employees, hosted servers for an off-shore Casino, and announced its dissolution in mid-December 2023.

After our first article(s), the contract between Vista and the PDA was canceled and the PDA employees resigned, only for essentially the same contract being entered into with Vista and the Grundy-Kendall County ROE and that ROE’s hiring of the former PDA employees. After a FOIA request regarding the new contract, it too was canceled, and those new Grundy-Kendall County employees again resigned from their positions.

There are still unresolved issues with this arrangement, and we will keep reporting as more information becomes available.

This story was originally published by Edgar County Watchdogs. Read the original HERE.