PDA – More Vista Contracts Not Previously Disclosed –

Will-Grundy-Kendall Counties – (ECWd) –

We previously wrote about two contracts between the Professional Development Alliance (“PDA”) which is an agency of the Will County and Grundy-Kendall Counties Regional Offices of Education, and Vista Learning, a private corporation.

Both of the previously disclosed 2013 and 2017 contracts listed the PDA as a contractor for Vista.

After another FOIA request, the PDA produced contracts from 2011 and 2012. According to the FOIA response, there are no more contracts between the PDA and Vista, even though Vista used the mailing address of the PDA for seven years prior to the 2011 contract.

These contracts differ from the 2013 and 2017 contracts in that Vista is the contractor for the PDA in 2011 and 2012. The key and critical differences, starting in 2013, are the PDA became the contractor for Vista (it was the opposite in 2011 and 2012), and also when Vista trademarked Evaluwise software.

This happened within a couple of weeks after Shawn Walsh (now employed by the Illinois State Board of Education) was appointed as the Will County Regional Superintendent. Walsh was also a Director of Vista Learning.

Then, according to the new contracts, came the new PDA employees participating in IMRF while performing most or all of their work for Vista under the contract, which included “software development” for Evaluwise software.