1 year after State College proposed making the Delta Program its own school, what’s next?

It’s been a year since State College Area School District administration first presented the idea of turning the Delta Program into its own school, and while the proposal is moving forward, parents’ opposition to it hasn’t changed.

During a Wednesday night meeting, the SCASD administration and parents from the Delta School Steering Committee presented to students, parents and staff of the Delta Program, outlining what a transition from program to school would look like. The 2 1/2-hour meeting mostly consisted of public comments from parents, students and staff who questioned and opposed the district’s recommendation.

Many Delta parents said the benefits were not worth changing the program. Parent Jen Nourse said despite the year of discussions, the process was moving too fast.

“For 50 years Delta has been perfectly fine,” Nourse said. “I don’t understand the urgency, I don’t understand the rush, I don’t understand the timing.”

The Delta Program, a democratically run alternative schooling program students can opt into starting in sixth grade, has operated within the district since 1974. 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.

Last March, the district proposed issuing Delta its own building code, which would allow for a clearer picture of Delta’s state data. As a program, Delta’s demographics, standardized test scores and school climate surveys are essentially a black hole to the district, with student scores stored in their “home schools” rather than within the Delta Program.

Following community pushback, the district formed a committee of Delta parents, students and staff that has met ten times in the past six months to discuss the program’s future. It’s unclear if the program committee has reached a consensus on whether Delta should become a school, but the administration is pushing ahead. The SCASD board of directors is set to hear a presentation on the proposal on March 25.

For the past year, the administration has tried to assure the Delta community that a transition to school would have few effects on Delta. The school would continue to be democratically run, students would continue to be able to take State High classes and participate in sports.

During the meeting, several parents from the Delta Program Committee asked if another solution could be found to both increase Delta’s visibility and separate its data from the other schools within the district. The group requested a yearlong transition period to help work through the impacts as well as a board policy that would reaffirm the district’s commitment to maintaining Delta’s democratically run system.

Linnet Brooks, a parent on the committee, expressed her frustration with the process so far and said parent suggestions had not been adequately included by the administration.

“I don’t know about you, but I signed my kids up to go to a program,” Brooks said. “...Our families deserve to know what a school might look like.”

Becoming a school could help with Delta’s visibility outside the State College community, making it easier to find for families moving into the district, assistant superintendent Johnathan Butcher said. It would also allow for administrators to gain access to Delta’s individual demographic, standardized testing and school climate data.

“It benefits us because we can make better decisions for the kids in the end,” Butcher said. “We have more information, clear information. That’s ultimately our goal.”

The administration will present to the board at its March 25 meeting, after which a motion to make Delta into a school could appear on a later board agenda. If the board approves Delta to become its own school, the transition would take place before the 2025 school year.