State College Area School District’s Delta Program will become its own middle and high schools starting this fall, and two initiatives are aiming to increase its visibility within the district and broader community.
New branding for the schools was presented at the school board’s July 21 first meeting. The board also heard about plans to pursue magnet school status for Delta from the U.S. Department of Education.
The school board in 2024 approved making the democratically-operated, community-oriented option for students in grades 6-12 its own schools after 50 years as a program tied to the district’s middle schools and high school.
The new logos and wordmark were designed by Peter Aeschbacher, a Delta parent and associate professor of architecture and landscape architecture at Penn State, after school community input, a request for proposals and a multi-phase voting process, Dot Burnett, a Delta teacher and branding committee subcommittee member, said.
“We were able to receive a number of beautiful designs from our community members,” Burnett said. “We’re very lucky to have some fantastic artists in our community.”
The primary and alternate logo incorporate Delta’s core elements of community, democracy and choice within a Penrose triangle, which Aeschbacher noted is best known from the work of M.C. Escher and the film “Inception.” The triangle is, as Aeschbacher explained, “a geometric form that looks three-dimensional when it’s represented in two dimensions but can’t actually exist in three dimensions. Mathematically, it can exist in five dimensions.”
“This with the three community, democracy and choice elements of delta is like a perfect metaphor for our community,” Aeschbacher said. “It’s only through this magical combination when all those things come together that it reads as this element.”
Board member Jesse Barlow said the logo is “mind-expanding, and that is what going to Delta is about.”
The final logo design by the Delta Transition Committee and was presented to district leadership for final endorsement. Burnett said the new branding was unveiled to students and staff during the school year and has been sent to alumni and future students.
Pursuing Magnet School Status
Members of another subcommittee also discussed plans to pursue magnet school status for Delta, a move that is intended “to elevate and preserve Delta’s democratic model, which would serve as the foundation of its magnet identity.”
Magnet schools are public schools choice options that the Department of Education defines as offering a “special curriculum capable of attracting substantial numbers of students of different racial backgrounds.” Pennsylvania has about 50 magnet schools, and nationwide some 4,000 enroll 3.5 million students, according to Erica Frankenberg, a Delta parent and Penn State professor of education and demography who studies magnet schools.
“Magnet schools are much different than charter schools… in that they are operated by school districts and they also began several decades earlier than charter schools and really began as a way to combine desegregation, a way to particularly get racial and economic diversity, along with providing school choice,” Frankenberg said.
“When they are structured appropriately with civil rights protections, so they have basic features we know from the literature are going to be successful, they can be very highly desirable and they can be some of the most diverse schools in a district,” she later added.
Leah Mueller, a Delta middle performing arts teacher and chair of the subcommittee, said the transition from program to school presented a good opportunity to become a magnet school, because in many ways Delta already operates as one
“We also thought this transition would allow us to provide that essential school of choice that would be open to all grade-eligible students, to retain our current enrollment procedure of a random lottery system common for many magnet schools, to solidify Delta’s current practices, to present the differences in our structure and curriculum and to provide transparency and consistency to the community concerning who we are and what we do,” Mueller said.
Magnet schools typically have unique curricula or themes, according to Frankenberg. Delta’s theme would be “democracy, which is what we do now, modeling, participating and teaching democracy,” Mueller said.
Jonathan Bucher, assistant superintendent for secondary education, said becoming a magnet school is about “better telling our story about what Delta has to offer students.”
“‘Alternative school’ doesn’t have the greatest positive, in general, connotation,” Bucher said. “When people ask me what is Delta from outside, I say it’s an alternative school that there’s a waiting list for and I get the most unusual head turns.”
Magnet schools can be intra- or inter-district, and Delta would only accept students from within SCASD. Accepting out-of-district students can provide a slight advantage for magnet schools pursuing specific federal funding, but isn’t necessary, Frankenberg said.
“What I think is important about magnet schools, regardless of if they are within or also admit out-of-district students, is that it has an active recruitment plan,” she said. “It makes sure that everyone who is grade-eligible for the school knows about it and even though there are more applicants than there are seats for right now it means that people equitably know about it and can easily apply to it. That’s a really important civil rights provision to make sure it’s not inequitable.”
Board President Amy Bader said that sometimes district families and students don’t understand what Delta is unless they are involved in it. Becoming a magnet school, Mueller said, will aid “perception and awareness” and “being able to explain it in a way that people understand in the community.”
Other board members also expressed support for exploring magnet school status.
Board member Peter Buck said he is “
“I think about things a lot in terms of music,” Buck said. “The district has a lot of pop music. It’s super-accessible. And Delta is a different kind of music, and it has to be recognized and cultivated. By codifying it we recognize its specialness, and the board and district come together to say, following on the resolution we had and what’s happened over the last two years to make it something truly permanent and durable, …’This is a unique special place and we’re going to recognize it in the most concrete fashion that we can.’”
Barlow, who’s daughter had a positive experience attending Delta after learning of it by “word of mouth,” said he appreciates that magnet school status would not change its character.
“In principle, this is something I’m very supportive of,” he said. “I’m anxious to see how it moves forward.”
