WORCESTER, Mass. — John Staley started at Doherty Memorial High School as a teacher in 1999. Since then, he's climbed the ladder to assistant principal and now principal.

Even while walking through the empty halls of the soon to be demolished building, it's yet to really hit him.

"It's a big transition for everyone," Staley said. "A lot of moving parts. Typically, we'd have an office, we'd still be here in the building to communicate with families or to bring people in."

More than 50 years of learning and memories is set to come crashing down, as Staley and company prepare for the new Doherty building, which is opening this summer.

The cafeteria has been picked clean and old desks are piled high outside. A sign reads the library is closed forever.

"It's sad, but it's also exciting to be able to do our work in a physical plant that will really enable us to shine and take the next steps," said Staley.

Educators have been working for the last several weeks to get their belongings ready for the new building. Students were remote for the week so faculty could start moving things like important documentation, records, and other necessities.

"This last week or so, the focus has really been on these other offices that only had this last week to kind of close-up shop," Staley said. "It has been a frantic pace of activities to close down the nurse's office, pack up their items, pack up their files, move. Same thing for the cafeteria, same thing for the office."

Staley says the old building made for an intimate learning environment. The new school will have more than double the square footage of the former school, but the hope is to carry over the family-like feel.

"I will miss the closeness that we all currently share, and we're making purposeful arrangements to really try to recreate that in a bigger building where we'll all have a little bit more elbow room and a chance to spread out," he said.