STATE COLLEGE — Starting in the 2025-26 academic year, the State College Area School District’s Delta program will become its own separate middle and high school. The State College Area School Board unanimously voted for the development of the program into a middle and high school during a meeting on Monday, May 20.
According to its website, the Delta program is “a democratic school of choice available to students in grades 9-12 who are enrolled in the State College Area School District.” The program’s primary goal is “to be a strong community that provides a safe, nurturing educational environment for all students.”
District administrators had previously proposed classifying the program as a school in 2023 and hosted a series of meetings for presentations to be made before the committee, which took meeting feedback and assessed it before submitting its findings to the superintendent and school board.
In a meeting update from March of this year, it was noted that the goal of the project was to “continuously improve as a district while providing equitable opportunities to all students.”
After some vocalized concern during the meeting on Monday, May 20, administrators and board members noted that the development from a program into a school will not change Delta’s approach to curriculum and school culture.
“Continuing to maintain that culture is hugely important,” board member Peter Buck noted during the meeting. “… Nobody wants to change that. It leaves an indelible mark on our community and it’s just so positive.”
The program, which currently has 136 middle school and 195 high school students, is planned to maintain its current capacity after the transition into a school. Though it will develop into its own school, Delta students will still be able to take classes and participate in sports and other extracurriculars at State High.
However, the new school will have its own test and school climate survey data to review, instead of having data embedded in the district’s high school and two middle schools’ results. More accurate state testing data was an influential factor in the decision to develop into a school. Board members noted that the new tracking of data would not impact the way the school operated, but would help to provide PSSA, Keystone and other state climate studies results, which would help the school to gain more accurate information in students’ scoring and performance growth.
Delta will additionally have new online sites, which it did not previously have as a program.
A new transition committee, under the direction of Jon Downs, director of education alternatives, will work to develop the names and branding of the new schools, select what name will be on diplomas, determine if graduation or other award ceremonies are desired and when they will occur, identify any potential changes to the school’s graduation requirements and create Delta’s internal profile and compile data for it. The committee will submit and present plans to the board by Monday, Dec. 2, and submit reports to Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Bucher during the development.
