Concord Police are investigating a break-in that occurred at Rundlett Middle School early Monday morning that resulted in damaged property and an unexpected day off for students.

Around 1:20 a.m. on Monday, police say three intruders broke into the middle school building on South Street and proceeded to vandalize the principal’s office, throwing items, smashing computer monitors and a copier machine and dumping things over. The intruders also entered the assistant principal’s office, before going upstairs and entering three eighth-grade classrooms on the second floor, according to the superintendent.

Concord Deputy Chief John Thomas said the office and the three classrooms were “absolutely destroyed,” with items broken, holes put in the walls and graffiti sprayed or written on the walls.

Concord Police were first alerted to the break-in around 6:30 a.m. when a school employee arrived at work and noticed the damage.

The case is still an open investigation, but Thomas said police have identified possible suspects. There is not yet an estimate for the total cost of the damage.

“It’s obviously disappointing to see an educational facility be attacked like that,” Thomas said. “Everybody suffers from something like this, notably the children at the school but also the entire community.”

While police declined to give more details about the manner in which the intruders entered the building, superintendent Kathleen Murphy told school board members at a meeting Monday night that a window had been smashed.

Murphy said she made the last-minute decision to delay and ultimately cancel the school day because by the time police were finished with their early-morning investigation there was no time to prepare the building for students to return. A two-hour delay was posted online around 7:30 a.m., and it was updated to a cancelation around 9:30 a.m. Many Rundlett parents expressed concern that they didn’t know school was fully canceled until late morning, and many students were already on their way to school, walking or via cars.

School was also canceled for Concord students district-wide on Tuesday, due to Election Day.

“I feel very strongly that when there are difficult situations it’s always advisable to have students with their teachers, and for an explanation as to what happened,” Murphy said. “But we’ll do that on Wednesday.”

Murphy said there will be no safety risk for students and staff returning to the school building on Wednesday.

“This is not a situation, other than a break-in and vandalism,” Murphy said. “Students and staff will be safe and secure.”

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