Momentum Growing Behind One City’s Innovative Model

Madison , WI – Three prominent community leaders and philanthropists, Diane Ballweg and Mary Ellyn and Joe Sensenbrenner, have donated $50,000 and $100,000 respectively to help fund One City’s year-round elementary school. One City operates the only public school in Wisconsin that has both a longer school day and year. 

“The focus, methods, leadership and initial results of One City are remarkable” said Joe Sensenbrenner. “If they can continue on this path, they may have the greatest civic impact of any organization working in Madison today, and on the future success of children coming of age in our city. Mary Ellyn and I are excited about the results we have seen from One City’s two-generation preschool so far.” 

Ms. Sensenbrenner added, “Children are learning. Parents are engaged. Families are benefiting. We were happy to step in to help fill a gap in needed state funding for One City’s year-round elementary school. What our city, state and the country will learn from One City made our extension of support an easy investment. ” 

Diane Ballweg shared similar reasons for her gift. “I have been a supporter of One City since they began renovating their current facility four years go. One thing that I am impressed by and supportive of is their high level of parental involvement and parental education. A child’s success depends on the effectiveness and dedication of their teachers, and on love, support and encouragement of their parents,” She said. “I believe that every child deserves the right to an education that prepares them to succeed and thrive in the future. However, with rights come responsibilities, for parents, school staff and children. All must work together and do their part to ensure children learn and move forward in school and life.”

Ballweg’s support was inspired by another unique aspect of One City’s mission as well. “The fact that One City has paired together its award-winning preschool with its new innovative elementary school, creating a well-planned continuum of education that will serve children from ages 1 through grade 6, gives  our youngest children a unique opportunity to get on track and stay on track educationally,” She said. “It will also give public education an important new model of education to learn from. For these reasons, I feel it is imperative that we support One City. I hope others will follow and do the same.”

One City’s year-round school program is just one of the many unique strategies it is deploying to help seed a new model of education that will help boost the academic achievement and attainment of all children, particularly Wisconsin’s most disadvantaged children. With two teachers in every classroom from preschool through first grade, significant student support services, longer instructional days through elementary school, a school food program that provides children a healthy breakfast, lunch and snack prepared on-site by a skilled chef each day, and a two-generation school program that includes and supports parents inside and outside of the school, One City is combining long-discussed educational innovations with strategies that educators know work for children.

“We are committed to our year-round model, but it is entirely unfunded by the state. Our longer school days aren’t funded either,” said Kaleem Caire, founder and CEO of One City Schools. “These gifts by Ms. Ballweg and the Sensenbrenners have come at the right time. Their generous support will help us fund our longer school day and our “third semester” this summer, which together, cost us $550,000 from June through August. Without this support, we could not operate two of the most important features of our school model and our school would shut down for the summer.” 

Caire also shared that, “We still have $150,000 to raise for this summer, but we believe others in our community will help us close this gap. Then, Caire added, “We will focus on achieving our fundraising goal for the upcoming 2019-20 school year that starts on September 3^rd.” 

Caire noted that One City’s mission is to seed a new model of public education that ensures young children are on track to succeed in a college or career preparatory program from birth through high school graduation. “We are making great progress with our children, but we need we need our community’s financial support until we can leverage adequate funding for our unique model from the state. We have already begun engaging key leaders at the state-level about supporting public schools with school schedules and calendars like ours,” he said. “But it will take us a few years, positive educational results, and an effective policy education agenda to achieve breakthrough.”

The Sensenbrenner’s and Ballweg’s most recent gifts follow a $50,000 donation from internationally-know photographer, Catherine Zdeblick, announced last week.

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About One City Schools

One City Schools, Incorporated is a nonprofit organization that operates two schools: a tuition-based independent preschool that serves children ages 1 through 3 and a tuition-free public charter school, authorized by the University of Wisconsin System, that will eventually enroll children from 4-year-old kindergarten through 6^thgrade.

• Read What Parents Say About One City
• Read What Teachers and Staff Say About One City
• Read One City’s Plan to Transformation Public Education

This fall, One City’s charter school will enroll 98 children in 4K, 5k and first grade. Children will attend school for 219 days compared to 180 days at other public schools in Wisconsin. They will also attend school for 8.75-hours per day Tuesday through Friday (from 8:15am – 5:00pm) with early release at 2pm on Mondays, compared to 6.5 hours of school-time typically offered by other public schools in our state. The extra time enables One City to extend the learning of its students and offer a pace and depth of learning that is appropriate and meaningful for each child.

WPS partners with TriWest Healthcare Alliance on contract to administer Community Care Network in Region 4 for Veterans Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Tom Enwright

(608) 977-7165

thomas.enwright@wpsic.com

WPS partners with TriWest Healthcare Alliance on contract to administer Community Care Network in Region 4 for Veterans Affairs

MADISON, Wis.—Aug. 8, 2019— WPS Military and Veterans Health today announced that it is one of the major subcontractors supporting the contract awarded to TriWest Healthcare Alliance by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to administer its new Community Care Network (CCN) serving military veterans across Region 4.  

“WPS has a successful record of working with TriWest on the Patient-Centered Community Care (PC3) and Veterans Choice programs,” said Dave Marshall, Executive Vice President of WPS Military and Veterans Health. “We look forward to continuing to partner with TriWest to serve our nation’s veterans. I extend thanks to our WPS employees for their outstanding performance in supporting the VA programs.”

TriWest administers the VA’s Patient-Centered Community Care program in all 50 states, the Pacific Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. WPS has worked with TriWest to provide claims processing services in support of TriWest’s current VA contract, which will continue under TriWest’s new CCN contract with VA for Region 4.

The geographic area of responsibility in Region 4 will include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

The new CCN contract will connect veterans to community health care providers when the VA is unable to provide those services directly. With the new contract, TriWest will be responsible for building out and maintaining a network of community health care providers, paying claims, and providing customer service in support of the VA’s health care mission. Other optional functions include appointment scheduling, care coordination, case management, and disease management services.  

“At TriWest, it has been our privilege to serve the health care needs of the veteran and military community for over two decades. We are humbled to have the opportunity through this contract to continue our work alongside the VA, through which we have served 1.8 million veterans with the provision of 11.9 million appointments from our network of over 1.1 million providers, as we continue to partner with WPS MVH for the next generation of our work in serving our nation’s veterans,” said David J. McIntyre Jr., President and CEO of TriWest Healthcare Alliance.

To learn more about the Community Care Network through the Department of Veterans Affairs, visit: www.triwest.com. Veterans can visit www.va.gov to learn about eligibility.

About WPS Health Solutions

WPS Health Solutions is a nationally regarded government contractor and a leading Wisconsin not-for-profit health insurer. The WPS Health Insurance division offers affordable health plans and benefits administration. The WPS Government Health Administrators division administers Part A and B Medicare benefits for millions of seniors in multiple states, and the WPS Military and Veterans Health division serves millions more members who are active in the U.S. military, veterans and their families. In 2019, the international Ethisphere® Institute named WPS one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® for the 10th straight year. For more information, please visit wpshealthsolutions.com.

M3 Ranked 50th Largest Broker of U.S. Business

For the first time in its 50 years in business, M3 Insurance cracked the top 50 on the list of 100 largest brokers of U.S. business, climbing five spots from 2018, according to a recent report in Business Insurance magazine.

Rankings were based on 2018 brokerage revenue generated by U.S.-based clients. M3 reported gross U.S. revenues of just above $67 million, showing an 11.9% increase over the previous year.

The special report and list of 100 largest brokers of U.S. business was released in the July 2019 issue of Business Insurance magazine, a leading, weekly publication for executives interested in mitigating risk and the impact it can have on business.

“We are thrilled to be a top 50 agency,” said Mike Victorson, president & CEO. “It’s a testament to the hard work and dedication of our talented team, along with the strong relationships we have with our clients, communities, and industry partners. We remain unwavering in our commitment to independence, private ownership, and our focus on being forward thinking and client-driven.”

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About M3

M3 Insurance offers insight, advice and strategies to help clients manage risk, purchase insurance and provide employee benefits. We are committed to being experts in both the products we represent and the industries we serve. Our people advance M3’s competitive advantage in the marketplace, and our focus on community builds better places to live and work. M3 is consistently ranked a top 100 broker in America and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018.

Recurring revenue pushes successful 1st half of 2019

MADISON, Wis., July 17, 2019 – Infosec, the leading cybersecurity education platform, today reports a more than 100% recurring revenue rate for the first half of 2019, fueled largely by customer retention and growth in the Infosec IQ security and awareness training platform. 

The company notes increasing traction for its unmatched portfolio of three role-based SaaS cybersecurity platforms to deliver skills and security awareness training — Infosec IQ, Infosec Skills and Infosec Flex. The cybersecurity education needs for every level of an organization are covered, from IT and security professionals to the general workforce and C-suite. 

“Big and small organizations realize the crucial business need for more proactive steps against cybersecurity threats,” said Jack Koziol, CEO and founder of Infosec. “The major benefit to our clients is all three learning platforms were built to meet the cybersecurity training needs of everyone in the organization. We’re gratified clients choose to partner with Infosec for the long haul. Growth is also seen by new customers switching to Infosec. This powerful package of role-based learning is receiving solid validation by the market.”

Infosec IQ — 3.5 million cyber-resilient learners

Infosec IQ achieved a 168% year-over-year revenue increase. More than 3.5 million learners using the platform are now more cyber resilient and empowered to keep their organizations’ systems secure and information private. Infosec IQ has the most comprehensive security awareness training program to help organizations and their employees cut the risk of a cyber attack — with more than 900 learning modules in 35 languages and 2,000 training resources, including phishing templates, professionally produced videos and layered awareness campaigns. 

Infosec Skills — a new way to stay smarter than the bad guys

A new platform was introduced in April tailor-made for cybersecurity pros wanting to advance their careers and keep their skills up on the very latest threats. Infosec Skills is mapped to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, which contains entry, mid and advanced cybersecurity roles backed by research into the actual skills requested by employers. More than 300 courses and 40 learning and certification paths are available in areas such as Ethical Hacking, Computer Incident Response, Mobile Forensics and Malware Analysis & Reverse Engineering.  

Infosec Flex — security pros choose training when it’s convenient for them

In the first half of 2019, more than 5,000 IT and security professionals enrolled in the flagship Infosec Flex training and certification courses — an 18% increase over the previous year. Infosec Flex courses are designed with today’s busy professionals in mind. All the courseware is personalized to how, when and where they learn best and features a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and popular Exam Pass Guarantee.  Infosec Flex makes expert, live instruction convenient with online and in-person formats.

Infosec Partner Program — enhanced offering

April saw the expansion of the popular Infosec Partner Program for managed services providers (MSPs), value-added resellers (VARs) and OEMs by adding Infosec Skills and Infosec Flex to the original Infosec IQ offering. This enhancement creates the only channel program in the industry to provide across-the-board, full-spectrum training needs for the clients of channel partners.

Move to larger Madison facility and continued hiring

In 2018, Infosec doubled its workforce and hiring additional employees to meet growing client needs continues in 2019. More than 150 employees are now building solid careers in a growing industry with Infosec. Leading the list of open positions are opportunities in Sales, Customer Experience, and Content Development. 

To accommodate the accelerated growth, Infosec recently moved to an 11,000 square foot office space on the entire tenth floor at 316 W. Washington St. The company retains its original headquarters at 311 W. Washington St. along with offices in Chicago and Dulles, Virginia. 

Infosec scores industry recognitions

In addition to being named a Gartner Peer Insights Customer’s Choice for Security Awareness Computer-Based Training in January, the company also earned these top industry recognitions in the first half of 2019:

• Best Cybersecurity Education Provider in the 2019 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards

• Fortress Cyber Security Award for Security & Applications — Training

• Trainingindustry.com 2019 Top 20 Training Company for its Online Learning Library 

• Best Partner Incentives at the ASCII Group’s 2019 Success Summit — Chicago 2019

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Media contact:

Jeff McCollum

Infosec — Media & Public Affairs Manager

608-509-9804

jeff.mccollum@infosecinstitute.com

About Infosec

Infosec has been fighting cybercrime since 2004. Thousands of organizations and over 2.68 million learners trust the wide range of security-specific classes and enterprise security awareness and phishing training to stay a step ahead of the bad guys. Infosec IQ, Infosec Flex and Infosec Skills provide the most advanced and comprehensive education and training platforms. Founded by CEO Jack Koziol, Infosec is based in Madison, with offices in Chicago and Dulles, Virginia. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com. 

130 Years Old and Still Playing!

MADISON, WI – Bucky Badger and members of the UW Band will kick off the 130^th birthday party for Attic Angel Association at 1:10 pm on Sunday, July 28. The indoor/outdoor party, which runs from 1 to 4 pm, is themed LIFE IS A PLAYGROUND! and will double as a fundraiser to build a playground to benefit children experiencing early trauma, including homelessness. Open to the public and happening across the Attic Angel campus at the intersection of Old Sauk and Junction Roads, the party will go on rain or shine.

Attic Angel press release