A cyberattack identified Saturday forced Jerome School District in south-central Idaho to cancel Monday classes after its communications and network operations went offline, district officials said.
The district directed families to check their email for details in a Facebook notice Sunday. “Teams are actively responding,” it said.
District leaders and technology staff activated emergency procedures to contain the incident, Superintendent Brent Johnson said in a statement reported by KMVT. The technology department was investigating alongside state and federal agencies.
Monday evening parent-teacher conferences at Jerome Middle School and most athletic practices were also canceled, KMVT reported. Wednesday’s conferences remained scheduled, and some basketball and wrestling practices were allowed to continue.
The public school district enrolled about 4,000 students in the 2024-25 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It is based in Jerome, about 115 miles southeast of Boise, and serves parts of Jerome, Gooding and Lincoln counties.
“Protecting student and staff information remains our top priority,” Johnson said in the statement carried by KMVT. He said the district had taken steps to safeguard its data and systems.
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Jerome previously suffered a ransomware attack in December 2017 that encrypted district data and disrupted phones and classroom computers. The Times-News reported in January 2018 that officials declined to pay a ransom and rebuilt systems using backups, with recovery work still continuing nearly six weeks after the attack.
Officials have not identified an attacker or said whether the current attack involved ransomware or access to student or staff information.
As of Sunday, the district had not announced when its network would be restored or whether classes would resume Tuesday.
