DPs attached to the Secondary must be upgraded first. During the upgrade process the Secondary role and MP role is removed and the server becomes a DP. For this you must have a 2012 Secondary ready. During the upgrade process you attach the DPs to the New Secondary.
Planning for Content Deployment During Migration to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg712275.aspx
Now you can continue to use the secondary as content distribution system without the need to redistribute the content.