In March of 2023, the idea first came about to make the Delta Program, a longstanding alternative educational program that operates around democratic and community initiatives, an official school. Delta offers a middle program for grades 6-8 and a high program for grades 9-12.
To start off the process, the Delta community was offered three choices: to become a school for the 24-25 school year, to become a school for the 25-26 school year, or to remain a program. The decision was ultimately made to become a school in the 25-26 school year. A committee to facilitate the transition and slow down the process was formed, and split into four subcommittees that did research and reported back to the committee at large.
Delta’s purpose within the school district is to offer a unique educational experience and bring diversity to the State College Area School District.
“I would just say that, you know, the more I got to know about Delta—and that was one of the things that I was encouraged to do, is to learn more about Delta, be here, more available and immerse myself in Delta—the more I have an appreciation for what Delta has to offer. And I hope that the more we’re able to publicize all the great things that are happening at Delta, that other parents and other students in our district will realize that Delta’s a really good place to be,” Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Jonathan Bucher said.
Jon Downs, SCASD Director of Educational Alternatives and the leader of Delta’s transition committee, explained the challenges presented by the transition.
“I frequently say, democracy is best done when it’s done slowly, so that’s when shared decision-making is right. You can’t make quick decisions in this environment, if you’re honoring, kind of the mission of the school, so it’s a trade-off,” Downs said.
The Transition Committee
Delta’s Transition Committee consists of seventeen total members, including representation from students, parents, staff, administrators, and State High. The Transition Committee began by holding meetings on a biweekly basis, but has moved towards a more as-needed approach as the end of the school year nears.
There are four subcommittees that report information back to the whole transition committee: a naming/branding committee, a graduation committee, an underclassman awards committee and a magnet school committee.
Meetings mainly consist of discussion that is then sometimes brought to the whole Delta community.
Downs explained a difficulty Delta has faced throughout this process.
“So, the biggest challenge was I think educating non-Delta residents on how decisions are made here. And when this first was rolled out about two years ago, it wasn’t a normal way we were used to decisions being made or information being shared. And so, I think that caused some friction among some members of the school district community,” Downs said.“I think it was a challenge for people because people thought this was being done to them, not with them, and we all know that things are best done when [they are] done with people, not to people.”
There were many concerns that the community had going into these processes, and some of them have still stuck around. Delta senior Lilith Thompson explained a fear many students echoed.
“I think it’s good that we’re becoming a school, but at the same time I feel like there’s a lot of unknown and unknown can be scary, but I also feel like our administration hasn’t really given us a lot of details of why we’re becoming a school and they just keep throwing the same data at us and keeps reiterating the same things that we’ve already learned,” Thompson said.
The hope was that the transition committee would work to find Delta’s definition and a way to keep what the community is like now.
The Magnet School Subcommittee
One of the subcommittees that runs under Delta’s transition committee is dedicated to looking at Delta becoming a magnet school. If this change were to be implemented, it would essentially be a definition of how Delta already operates. A magnet school is a school that offers a free but by application education as a “school of choice,” within a school district. This is essentially what Delta already is, but it would define it more clearly and allow Delta to have a presence online as an official school.
“So the idea of Delta becoming [a] magnet school, which puts a positive spin on what Delta does, as opposed to probably a negative connotation when you use the word “alternative,” for people to know what Delta has to offer students. And that was also part of the committee, that is to say that only certain pockets of parents in the district knew about Delta, and we want to be able to have information to share with all community members, so students have more opportunities, [and the] ability to possibly come here,” Bucher said.
Delta Middle music teacher Leah Mueller, who is a member of the magnet school subcommittee, explained what being a magnet school could do for the Delta community.
“If that were to happen, I think it would give people in the community a better idea of what Delta is, rather than being like an alternative program,” Mueller said. “People have heard of what a magnet school is and may understand why this is a popular option for a lot of families.”
School Naming and Branding
A decision has already been made about Delta’s name next year. The transition committee first came up with several ideas, and then those ideas were proposed to the school community, which voted. The Delta Middle Program and the Delta High Program will be known as Delta Middle School and Delta High Program next year, respectively.
As for a logo, a popular idea for a logo design is two separate logos that somehow combine into a singular picture. This has not yet been defined yet, and a logo contest is currently underway, open to members of the Delta community. This is one of Delta’s core values: student involvement.
“The importance of Delta with student involvement is that it really makes students feel like they have independence and they have a role to their education in that their voice matters,” Thompson said. “Which I think is very important to what democracy means and especially what Delta means, because Delta encourages students to grow and think about things in a broad way, [not] just a single minded way. I think that’s really important, especially within our democracy and how our world is right now.”
For school branding, the Delta community was sent multiple Google Forms asking for a vote on which words they felt best described Delta. After multiple rounds of voting, the words that were settled on were community, democracy, and choice.
“So those are the descriptors that kids [in our] community felt best about. [They are] basically for our artists, whoever wants to design a logo to help them kind of inspire their design-making process really. And then we will probably take those words and buy a new floor mat with a new logo on it. We’ll get new flags up front with those words on it or something of that nature,” Downs said.
Testing and Data Compilation
One of the most tangible changes to Delta next year relates to testing. As a school that’s officially registered with the state, the culture and climate survey and standardized test results, such as the PSSA, the SAT and the Keystone exams, will be displayed as Delta’s own data. In past years, it was mixed in with State High’s, Mount Nittany Middle School’s, or Park Forest Middle School’s, depending on the students “home school,” or the school they would’ve gone to had they not gone to Delta. AP exams will remain the same as they function now.
“I would suspect the biggest change that I am anticipating is that people are going to start seeing in data form that our students are doing really well here. Our students are really happy here. They like this place. So I think this is going to open some people’s eyes to what really goes on here,” Downs said.
Graduation and Diplomas
Graduation from Delta High is a big aspect of the transition committee.
“Graduation requirements and like diplomas are going to function parallel to State High in a way. So graduation requirements remain the same for now. There’s been no talk about changing those. That would be a bit of a challenge to have two high schools with two different graduation requirements within a quarter mile of each other, especially since so many of our kids take classes across the street,” Downs said.
The school district will be changing the look of the diplomas alongside this. All students’ diplomas from next year on will read “State College Area School District” in place of “State College Area High School” on the outside. On the inside, there will be an artist’s rendering of whichever school the student graduated from, whether it be State High or Delta.
Downs thinks this, by itself, is a positive change. “It will say ‘[State College Area] School District,’ which I think is kind of cool too, because you don’t graduate from just the high school, you graduate from the entire district, right? It almost discredits a little bit your elementary and middle school experiences, because that was part of your growing process.”
Delta as a School
In the end, the way Delta functions won’t be too different next year.
“I’m sure there’ll be challenges for next year that we didn’t anticipate, even though we spent a lot of time, there’ll be things that just come up,” Bucher said. “I don’t foresee much changing for Delta, as 98% of the way that Delta functions. I believe the students probably would look would notice little to any change, but they’re becoming a school.”
As for the future, there are high hopes that the Delta community will continue to thrive.
“For many years, people have created their own narrative about what Delta is without being properly informed, which is a dangerous venture to set out on,” Downs said. “So I think when we have some hard data to show how well kids are doing here, how happy kids are here, I think that’s going to shift a lot of thinking for many people and maybe drive up demand for Delta more than we already have.”
