(in)CITE Newsletter — February 2026


 

(in)CITE Newsletter

February 2026

Call For Sessions

Call For Sessions is now open! The deadline to submit is Wednesday, March 25 at 11:59pm. We’re looking for over a hundred incredible sessions that dive deep into the topics and challenges that our members deal with every day and who knows that best but you! 

Exhibitor Registration is Open!

Exhibitor registration for the 2026 CITE Annual Conference is now open. Secure your booth early to connect with thousands of K–12 technology leaders and showcase your solutions. 

 

CITE Program Updates

CompTIA Bootcamp Registration Closes Soon!

Now - March 10, 2026


Get exam-ready with the CITE CompTIA A+ Bootcamp Study Program, designed for K–12 IT professionals and led by a CompTIA exam proctor. Don’t miss this opportunity to strengthen your skills and certification prep with fellow CITE colleagues.

Technology Procurement Academy Registration Now Open!

Now - March 25, 2026


Strengthen your procurement expertise with the CITE Technology Procurement Academy. This comprehensive program explores best practices and essential resources for navigating procurement in a

K–12 IT environment. Participants gain hands-on experience developing practical tools while building a strong understanding of key policies, regulations, and recent changes impacting the procurement landscape. 

Attend CAMSA Office Hours

March 18, 2026 — 2:00-2:45PM


Join our CAMSA office hours each month to stay informed on Microsoft technology updates, end-of-life timelines, feature reviews, and to get your questions answered about the CAMSA Agreement.

 

CITE Membership Webinars

Maximize Your Membership Webinar

March 5, 2026 — 12:00-12:45PM


Join us to learn about all that CITE membership has to offer, how to get involved, programs, resources, and ask any questions you may have about your membership and CITE as an organization! 

CITE Collaboration Labs - Members Only

Let's Talk About AI Policy and Implementation

March 19, 2026 — 2:00-3:30PM


Come to discuss unintended issues, managing your constituents’ expectations, or planning for future needs with CITE members from across the state that manage and support AI Policies and Implementation!

CITE CAP Spotlight

Digital Scepter is a network security consulting firm that helps organizations design, implement, and operate secure infrastructure, with deep expertise in Palo Alto Networks platforms and their integration across the broader IT environment.


Many IT teams today manage a mix of campus networks, remote access, cloud services, and SaaS applications. Security tools are often deployed over time and end up operating independently, which makes troubleshooting difficult and increases operational risk. Our work centers on bringing those systems together so policies, visibility, and access control behave consistently across on-prem and cloud environments.


We specialize in Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls, Panorama management, GlobalProtect remote access, and related security services. As a long-time Palo Alto Networks partner, we help organizations with architecture design, lifecycle upgrades, rulebase optimization, high availability, logging and visibility, and operational best practices. Our focus is not just deployment, but ensuring the platform is configured in a way that is scalable, supportable, and aligned with real-world operational needs. 

We assist with firewall architecture, network segmentation, remote access, and integration of security platforms with identity systems, endpoint protection, logging platforms, and cloud services. While we regularly work alongside Active Directory and cloud identity providers, our primary role is ensuring the network security layer works cleanly with them rather than treating each product as a separate project.


In addition to consulting services, we have developed Falco, a security visibility and reporting platform designed to give IT teams clear, actionable insight into their Palo Alto Networks environments. Falco helps organizations better understand rule usage, configuration risk, log activity, and policy behavior without requiring additional staff overhead. It is built to support ongoing operational clarity—particularly valuable for education environments where resources are limited but accountability is high. 

Most engagements begin when a team is spending significant time chasing connectivity issues, unclear policy behavior, or alerts that are difficult to interpret. We focus on practical improvements such as predictable traffic paths, clean and well-documented policy structures, usable logging, and recovery planning. The result is a network that is easier to operate and a security posture that administrators can actually understand.


We do not aim to replace internal IT staff. Our goal is to support existing teams, document the environment, and transfer knowledge so they can maintain it confidently after the project is complete. 

Education organizations are a natural fit for this work because they must support open access while still protecting critical systems and data. We help IT teams strike that balance in a way that remains sustainable for the staff who operate it day to day. 

CITE Year-Round Benefits

Whether you call CITE your “Professional Home”, “Trusted Network”, or “Support Squad”… 

we are here to support you year-round!


Want to learn more about the CITE Community and offerings specifically designed to lead, develop, and support technologists in educational organizations?

CITE Educational Membership is available to current employees of Local Education Agencies (LEAs) such as any public or private educational institution. Information on individual and team membership can be found at: https://www.cite.org/cite-membership-information.

Privacy Services is CITE's comprehensive Student Data Privacy Agreement (DPA) management and negotiation service. See the latest agreements signed with CITE's Privacy Services program.

Special Thanks to Our Sponsors

and Program Partners

CITE exists to lead, develop, and support technologists and education organizations to inspire student success.


To learn more about CITE and our programs, visit our website and check out our social media!

Web        Facebook        Instagram        LinkedIn        X        YouTube