Manassas City Schools Shut Down After Cybersecurity Breach, Set to Reopen Wednesday

Manassas, Va. — Manassas City Public Schools were forced to close on Monday, November 11, 2024, after the district suffered a cybersecurity incident that disrupted key network and phone systems. Officials say the schools are expected to reopen on Wednesday, November 13, pending system restoration and safety verification.

Superintendent Kevin Newman informed families that the breach was discovered over the weekend, prompting an immediate shutdown of internal systems. While there is no indication of any physical threat to students or staff, online connectivity and district-wide communication tools remain impacted.

The district chose to close Monday to allow IT teams and external cybersecurity specialists to investigate the incident and secure critical infrastructure. Tuesday was already scheduled as a closure in observance of Veterans Day, giving the district an additional day to stabilize systems before students return.

Officials emphasized that the primary goal is to ensure the safety and integrity of all digital operations before reopening. Updates will continue to be provided to parents, teachers, and staff as the investigation progresses.

Key Points

• A weekend cybersecurity breach triggered widespread outages in school network and phone systems.
  
  
• No physical threat to staff or students has been reported.
  
  
• IT teams and third-party cybersecurity experts are working to contain and remediate the incident.
  
  
• Schools plan to reopen Wednesday if systems are fully restored.