Newsletter · August 21, 2026
E-rate and your network: what's changing and how to plan
The first two weeks of a school year always tell you where the cracks are. This issue leads with one of our own, Todd Mares, then one funding story worth your attention and three things worth ten minutes each.
If anything here sparks a question, we are a conversation away.
Employee Spotlight
Thirty years his own boss, then he made Pine Cove a promise
By the time Todd Mares went looking for a job, he had not had one in about thirty years. He ran his own low voltage cabling company outside Denver, seven employees at the peak. Then the market turned, and cabling is the first line item to go when a company is protecting payroll.
He had been subcontracting for Pine Cove for about five years, which is how he knew Ronda . She mentioned the company was looking for somebody in-house. Three or four years later, he is on our physical security team, and the only boss he had ever had before us was himself.
"That's one thing I told them when I hired on. I'll treat your company the same way as I would treat my own."Read Todd's full story on LinkedIn
Pine Cove connection: Todd is the person who shows up when your access control or camera system needs to actually work. If your buildings are due for a look, that is what a Pathfinder 360 walkthrough covers.
Trail Ahead
The FCC is asking whether E-rate should still exist
On August 14 , the FCC published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that opens the door to changing, limiting, or sunsetting the E-rate program outright. Public comment is open through October 13 .
E-rate sent $10.5 billion to districts between 2021 and 2025, the fifth-largest source of federal funds schools receive. The rule asks whether the program "should be limited or sunset" given today's connectivity rates, and floats tying eligibility to parent screen-time opt-outs. AASA hosts a virtual town hall September 9 .
Read the full brief at K-12 Dive
Quick Bytes: Must-Read Articles
CISA released a free K-12 cybersecurity playbook
CISA published its K-12 Cybersecurity Foundations Resource Package on August 14: a Getting Started Guide for district leaders, a deeper Implementation Guide for IT staff, and a six-part video series, organized around eight objectives starting with login credentials and backup testing. All of it free.
Pine Cove connection: Those eight objectives map almost exactly to a Pathfinder 360 assessment. If you want a second set of eyes on where your district lands against the list, that is a call we are glad to take.
Microsoft patched 400 flaws and one zero-day already being exploited
August's Patch Tuesday, released August 11 , covered 400 vulnerabilities including three zero-days. The one to move on is CVE-2026-68820 , a flaw in the Windows WinSock driver that hands an attacker SYSTEM privileges with no user interaction. Check Point tied active exploitation to North Korea's Lazarus group.
Pine Cove connection: This is the kind of flaw that turns one phished staff account into a district-wide incident. If your patch cycle is monthly-ish rather than monthly, the first weeks of a school year are the worst time to find out.
A Kentucky district's back-to-school security reset
Somerset Independent Schools walked its board through a two-year security overhaul on August 11 : one cloud-based identity for every user, multi-factor authentication, 180-day password expirations, and phishing training for staff. Their technology coordinator named phishing email as the district's single biggest risk.
Pine Cove connection: Identity is where most K-12 incidents start, and one of the few places a lean team gets a large return. Consolidating logins, turning on MFA everywhere, and running real phishing simulations is a one-semester project.
Partner Pulse: News From the Brands We Build On
Verkada's 2026 State of Cloud Physical Security report
Verkada released its 2026 State of Cloud Physical Security report on August 12 , surveying more than 2,700 IT and security leaders across 10 markets. Cloud-based sites are using AI at 2.6 times the rate of on-premise ones, and 94% of those not yet fully cloud-managed are planning or mid-transition.
Pine Cove connection: We deploy Verkada across districts and government buildings in Montana and Wyoming , and the cloud piece is what sells it: no NVR closet, no site visit to pull footage, one console for every building. Ask Todd and he rates it on reliability, the measure that counts when you are the one driving back out.
In Case You Missed It
Our last issue looked at three districts in three states hit in the same week, and how Kamiah Joint School District #304 got ahead of it. Catch up on the August 7 edition .
From Our Team
Pine Cove Corner
The through-line this issue is that the ground moves whether or not you are ready. Funding gets reviewed, vendors ship 400 patches in a month, and the identity system you built five years ago quietly stops being enough. None of that requires panic. It requires a plan you revisit on purpose instead of when something breaks. That is the idea behind Pathfinder 360 .
Schedule your Pathfinder 360 call at pinecc.com .
Stay Connected Beyond the Trail Report
Our newsletter only scratches the surface of what is happening every day in the world of IT, security, and education. For the latest updates, quick insights, and resources you will not find here, follow us on LinkedIn . It is the best way to stay in the loop with Pine Cove and catch what is new before the next issue lands in your inbox.
- The Pine Cove Team
