Washington Central Unified Union School District officials have approved a grade reconfiguration that will send all fifth- and sixth-grade students from Rumney Memorial School in Middlesex to Doty Memorial School in Worcester next school year, while moving all pre-K through second-grade students from both towns to Rumney.

Steven Dellinger-Pate announced the plan in an email last week and acknowledged the timing would be rough for families, saying that announcing the change late in the school year is not ideal and that news of a transition like this can understandably bring about anxiety for both students and parents.

The move affects a district that spans five towns — Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester — and comes after dozens of community members signed a petition asking officials to pause the reconfiguration until proper community engagement is completed and considered. Parents and community members say the decision was made with no formal community input or discussion, a complaint that has become familiar in Washington Central after earlier fights over school consolidation.

Katie Marshall, a Middlesex parent with a pre-K student and a kindergartner at Rumney, said she was worried about the precedent the decision sets. She said it raised the possibility that decisions like this could be made unilaterally, without significant community input at all. Her concern reflects the larger frustration in the district, where many families say they were handed a plan rather than brought into one.

Diane Nichols-Fleming, who is backing the reconfiguration, said the goal is to balance enrollment and preserve educational quality at both schools. She said bringing the Middlesex and Worcester fifth and sixth grades together at one school allows for an expansion of instruction, an expansion of peer groups and space for single-grade instruction that is critical in math and foundational literacy.

The dispute lands in a district that has been under pressure for years. Washington Central was formed in 2015 when five towns merged under Act 46, and it tried again in February to shutter two community elementary schools in Calais and Worcester. Voters in those towns rejected that effort just months ago, a defeat that made clear how strongly residents feel about keeping neighborhood schools open.

That history matters because the new reconfiguration is being read through the same lens. To district leaders, it is a way to adjust staffing and class structure without closing buildings. To many parents, it looks like another top-down change in a system that has repeatedly tested local patience. The district says the plan is about balance; the community hears another step in a long argument over who gets to decide what schools look like in five small towns.

The next test comes when families have to prepare for the switch before the upcoming school year. If the district sticks with the plan, Middlesex fifth- and sixth-graders will move to Worcester, younger children will gather at Rumney, and the question that has already divided the district will shift from whether the change was wise to whether leaders can still repair trust before the first bell rings.