Readiness Brief

This weekly update ensures all families in Worcester and Middlesex have real-time visibility into the operational and academic reconfiguration of Doty Memorial and Rumney Memorial schools. Our primary objective is a seamless launch on August 26, 2026.

There will be a principal site visit at Doty on Thursday, June 11 at 1:00

• Note on 5th Grade: We are actively refining the proposed "two-bus transfer" system to ensure safety and minimize transit time. Final routes will be released in early August.

• There will be a bus drop-off at Kellogg-Hubbard Library for Doty and Rumney

• Shared nursing- Bonne Cadwell will spend 50% of her time at Doty and 50% of her time at Rumney. She will have some days that she goes to both schools, which increases student access to a nurse, compared to the 2025-26 school year.
• Shared counseling- Sharon Spector and Maureen McDermot will team together to ensure students transitioning schools will have a familiar support system. Sharon will spend 1/2-1 day a week at Doty and Maureen will visit Rumney periodically and as needed.

• June 9: Current K-5 students at Doty and Rumney will participate in Step-up Day activities; the district will provide bus transportation between schools.

Karoline and Bec will also be working together to design and schedule some social "pop-in" opportunities that will occur beginning in August. If you're interested in being part of the event planning and design, then please email me at kmay@u32.org.

Last week Karoline worked with Julia Pritchard around special educator staffing at both schools. The decision was made that Brigitte Kalat will be full time at Rumney, Michelle Bret will be full time at Doty, and Annie Coppock will be split between the schools. She will spend mornings at Doty and Afternoons at Rumney.

The school schedule (currently in draft form) was designed to ensure all services and interventions can occur at both sites.

• Teacher Placements: Final reassignment letters will be issued during the week of June 8. A full list of "who is teaching where" for all grade levels (PK-6) will be published on the district website by the end of the week.

• Principal Availability: Principal Karoline May will be site-visiting Doty this week to meet with students and families.

• Point of Contact: For academic or intervention questions, please contact the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. For operational or facility questions, contact the Superintendent’s Office.

At the last community forum, there was a request to know about what the shared principal will look like between two schools and to describe the role of the principal designee.

The schedule will be flexible, and based on each week. That way regularly scheduled meetings that occur outside the school building don’t consistently land on one school more than another. It’s also important that the schedule rotates because both buildings have part-time allied arts teachers, so by missing one day each week I would never work in the same building as some teachers.

On the first day of school, I will start my day at Rumney. This is the site with the youngest students, and it’s a great time to support families as they leave their little ones for their first day. I will head to Doty mid-day to greet students and ensure day 1 goes smoothly. I will be helping with dismissal, so it goes as quickly as possible for families that are picking up at 2 sites.

Staff will have access to a calendar that outlines which building I will be in throughout the week, as well as any assigned meetings or events. The top part of the calendar with the date and site, will be part of the family newsletter, with the caveat that the schedule will change if specific needs arise. Families will always be able to contact me via email or phone, regardless of the school I’m based at for that day.

Sample Calendar ⏬

Day-to-day: This person will be the point of contact for time sensitive issues that arise throughout the day. They help ensure everything is covered when there are absences, check-in with the office staff, and make sure everything is running smoothly. Anything that comes up that has long-term implications, or requires supervision or discipline, the principal will be called and the two will problem solve together.

Safety procedures: The principal designee is someone that sits on the school safety team, so they will be familiar with all safety procedures and will have experience doing after-action reviews from past events. If the designee is a classroom teacher and there’s a situation that staff notice, then the school counselor immediately covers the teacher’s classroom. The teacher assess the situation and can follow the safety protocol.

For example: We once had a car parked in our loop during the school day. The driver remained in the car, and it was there for some time. Staff started checking it out, and grew concerned. The principal designee was informed. He went to check it out, viewed video footage of when the car arrived, and opted to call the principal to determine next steps. The steps we took were to keep students inside until the car was gone. In the end, it was someone using the school’s open WiFi and they left without incident.

If the school needed to activate Run, Hide, Fight, it requires the alarm to be sounded, and for teachers/staff to use the training that they have. Classroom teachers would be responsible for the students in their classroom. Part of the Run, Hide, Fight approach is to empower teachers to make decisions based on the information they have in the moment.. If the best approach is to Run, there are several members of the safety team that have a role in the procedure. The principal is the point of contact, until emergency services arrive. If the principal is not on site, the safety team is aware of the next point of contact and what that role entails.

• School Principal, Karoline May, kmay@u32.org, for questions about events, daily schedules and classroom assignments.

• Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, Jen Miller-Arsenault, jmillerarsenault@U32.org for academic and curriculum questions.

• Superintendent’s Office, Steven Dellinger-Pate, sdpate@u32.org, for transportation and residency questions.

• Director of Student Support Services, Julia Pritchard, jpritchard@u32.org, for special education or 504 questions.

• Community Schools Coordinator, Bec Dezan, rdezan@u32.org, for community events.

• Reconfiguration Transparency Portal: A dedicated section on the WCUUSD website will house information where families can get information and verify the completion of milestones in real-time.

• Weekly "Readiness Briefs": Every Monday, starting June 8, the district will issue a one-page update to Doty and Rumney families detailing progress on staffing, transportation, and facilities.

• Classroom/Teacher Assignments Transition Plan: Deliver a structured accounting of teacher assignments, curriculum alignment, and facility plans in writing to all families. Families will be given their child’s teacher’s name with their school report card.

• Staffing Finalization: Publish the final list of teacher placements for all Doty and Rumney grades.

• Baseline Schedule Release: Classroom teachers will send all families their class schedule. Families will know the allied arts days so students can be prepared for PE and/or Art.

• Intervention & IEP Alignment:

• Conduct a site-specific analysis to ensure tiered supports (EST and interventions) are functional and streamlined between buildings.

• Provide families of students with IEPs a written confirmation of how their specific supports will be maintained during the transition.

• Transportation Mapping: Finalize bus routes using data from family surveys, adhering to the 45-minute maximum travel time where possible.

• Nurse & Counselor Scheduling: Finalize the collaborative rotation for the shared nurse and the two school counselors (1.8 FTE total for both schools).

• Principal Designee: Finalize the delegates at each site when the principal is not present. Provide any necessary training for delegates.

Facility Transfer: Complete all room moves, including the relocation of resources for the PK-2 program at Rumney and the 5-6 program at Doty.

• Tradition Integration List: Publish a list of school traditions (e.g., the Sugarhouse program and Haunted Hallway) that will be preserved or integrated into the new sites.

• Site Orientations: Host student-led tours for families to meet new peers and teachers in their new environments.

• Route Verification: Release final bus routes, drop-off/pick-up protocols, and driver assignments to families.

• Teacher Inservice: Staff will work together to finalize first days and events for the fall. Nurse delegates will receive training.

• First Day of School, August 26: Fully operational reconfiguration.

• Post-Launch Feedback Loop: Open a formal channel for families to report logistical friction points (e.g., bus ride length or schedule conflicts) for immediate administrative review.