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Hernando Today

Gifted Task Force Meets Today

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By LINNEA BROWN, Hernando Today

Published: January 10, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Officials have some big decisions to make about the future of Hernando County's education for gifted students.

For example, where it will take place.

With a goal of developing a centralized gifted program for the 2008-09 school year, members of Hernando County School Board's gifted education task force may choose a location for a future gifted center at a 4 p.m. meeting today at West Hernando Middle School in Brooksville.

Prior to the meeting, a subcommittee of the task force will meet at 2:30 p.m. and address the question of "What does the ideal school look like?"

"We'll be looking at everything from curriculum to staffing to special needs," said longtime board member and vice-chairman Jim Malcolm, a member of the task force. "The question is, 'What does it look like from your perspective?' Once we have answers to (that), we'll have a better idea of what kind of (facility) we need."

The gifted center - discussed by many as a school-within-a-school concept - would draw gifted students from across the county to one location, such as Challenger K-8 School of Mathematics and Science, Parrott Middle School, the new Explorer K-8 or a new location.

At the 4 p.m. meeting, district staff members will present the pros and cons of the potential site locations.

The two options for an entirely new school facility would be vacant acreage on Spring Hill Drive or Mobley Road. However, the idea of building a new school is expected to be too expensive to implement, costing the district up to $19 million.

Meanwhile, it would cost nothing to place the program at the new Explorer K-8 on Northcliffe Boulevard, since nothing would need to be changed.

Construction costs of placing the center at Challenger would cost the district an estimated $100,000, while placing it at Parrott would cost an estimated $25,000, Malcolm said.

A student is defined as "gifted" if he or she scores at least two standard points above the average IQ score, and passes at least two sections on a state IQ test
However, since students may not be gifted in all areas, the center may offer students the flexibility of attending only some of their classes there.

Also, task force members must decide if it makes more sense to create a gifted "wing" or have classes spread out around the school, side-by-side with regular classes.

"I'm hoping we can make the decision as soon as possible about (where) to go, so we can get on with business," Malcolm said.

Once identified, students who qualify as "gifted" fall under the umbrella of exceptional student education, or ESE, and bring in about $2,100 more in state per-student funding.

This year, the district reported 2.5 percent of its elementary students as gifted. The state average is 3.7. However, many other students may be unidentified, Malcolm said.

The task force - which includes district administrators, teachers, staff and parents involved with local gifted children - must submit its recommendations to the board by April 1.

The task force aims to model its curriculum after similar programs in other counties such as Palm Beach, which already has a gifted program in place.

Today's task force meeting will take place at 4 p.m. at the media center at West Hernando Middle School in Brooksville, located at 14325 Ken Austin Parkway in Brooksville. It will be preceded by a sub-committee meeting at 2:30 p.m.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 1-352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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