Worcester school leaders took a tour of the new Doherty Memorial High School on Tuesday.
“I’m excited for the ability to match our high-quality instruction with a facility that’s gonna deliver results that it’s tough to even imagine,” said John Staley, Principal at Doherty.
From the massive cafeteria to the auditorium and dozens of other unique spaces in between, district leaders say they’re proud of the state-of-the-art spaces for students to learn and grow.
“Elated, joyful for the staff and the children and the community in Worcester, they deserve this,” said Dr. Rachel Monárrez, Superintendent of Worcester Public Schools.
There’s a focus on career development with programs like engineering and construction to web design and marketing.
“A space like this is another opportunity for students in the city who have a passion and can kind of see a career trajectory for themselves or college trajectory to start that now,” said Staley.
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While students and staff gear up for a new school year, they’ll also be faced with a new cell phone policy.
“We are not banning them from being on campus, we’re just saying there’s a time and place,” said Dr. Monárrez.
The Worcester School Committee approved the new policy in June, which requires students to shut off or silence all cell phones and earbuds and store them away while in class.
Cell phones can only be used for educational purposes if a teacher allows it.
“It makes it more challenging for a principal of a large high school and the teachers when we don’t have clarity around those kinds of things,” said Dr. Monárrez.
So the new policy spells out the rules.
If a student violates the cell phone policy, they’re given a warning at first.
Then the phone could be confiscated, and eventually the student’s parents could be called in.
The superintendent says the district tried to find a balance with this new policy since there’s been some heated debate on whether students should even have phones in school.
“Some parents are very much like, ‘I want my child to have a cell phone in case of emergency God forbid,’ others are like ‘Nope, I don’t think we need this at all,’ so we found something where it makes sense educationally,” said Dr. Monárrez.
As for Doherty Memorial High School, construction is still underway, but district leaders say the school should be ready to open for the first day on August 26.
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