State College board revisits proposal that has parents concerned for future of Delta Program

Months after being met with strong pushback, the State College Area School District is revisiting the idea of turning the Delta Program into its own school.

During Monday night’s school board meeting, members heard a Delta Program Committee update and heard from parents who continue to have concerns about the proposal. If made its own school, Delta students would still be able to participate in sports, take classes at State High and keep the school’s democratic process. But many members of the Delta community still oppose the change, believing it is at best unnecessary and at worst could lead to fundamental changes to the program.

The Delta Program is a democratically run alternative schooling program students can opt into starting in sixth grade. Since 2019, the program has been housed within the North Campus of State High after its move from the Fairmount Building in downtown State College.

In March, the administration proposed changing the program into a separate school, prompting more than 120 parents, teachers and students to attend a PTO meeting opposing the change. The district said the change would be only a matter of issuing the Delta Program a separate building code, making it recognized as a separate school by the state.

District officials have said that a such a change would allow state data, like PSSA test scores and state climate studies, to be tracked more easily. As a program, all of Delta’s state data is desegregated into the middle schools and high school. Delta’s demographics, standardized test scores and climate surveys are a black hole to the district, getting lost in the larger data groups of students’ “home” schools, district officials said.

However, the central fear for many members of the Delta community is that the change will fundamentally alter the way Delta operates. Six Delta parents and staff members spoke during Monday’s meeting, questioning the decision and asking for other solutions to the district’s data problem.

“I’m worried that Delta magic is potentially threatened by going from a program to a school,” Delta parent and State High teacher Danielle Crowe said.

Standardized testing is not a major concern for many members of the Delta community, with about 20% of the Delta Program population opting out of state-required PSSA testing.

“The data is the tail wagging the dog on a program that is incredibly successful,” parent Lara Fowler said during public comment.

Schools with less than a 95% participation rate in PSSA exams have to submit a plan with the Department of Education to raise test participation, and any students who opt out above 5% are automatically counted as a failing score. Board member Deborah Anderson also questioned the validity of the data Delta would receive with such high opt-out rates.

“The numbers aren’t gonna look good, that’s just factual,” Anderson said. “When you look at proficient versus non-proficient, with a 20% opt out rate 15% of your students are going to look non-proficient, but we actually don’t know.”

Board member Peter Buck said the board should consider a resolution to assure the Delta community that moving from a program to a school would not change its culture or operations.

“It’s really important that whatever happens, whether it’s a program or a school, that the board affirms the district’s commitment to the culture, structure, governance and curriculum of Delta,” Buck said.

The Delta Program Committee next meets Dec. 13. According to a handout presented at Monday’s meeting, and set to be sent to Delta families by email, next steps include the committee sharing recommendations with the superintendent. The superintendent would make a recommendation to the school board, which would make the decision on the future of Delta.