Gifted Program Going Strong, Officials Say

Though some parents are crying foul, the district's new centralized gifted program is faring well, officials say.

Parents of gifted children who want to see services offered at home schools have spoken out at Hernando County School Board meetings in recent weeks, urging the board to reconsider offering gifted classes at all schools, instead of just one.

But since students returned to school a month ago, the numbers are still relatively high, said the county's director of Exceptional Student Education, Cathy Dofka.

The immersion-style learning program for high-IQ students - which premiered at Spring Hill's Explorer K-8 this fall - started with 270 gifted students, and is now down to 255, she said.

The 15 students who decided to leave the program left for "any number of reasons," Dofka said, but most likely simply wanted to return to the school they attended last year.

Meanwhile, there are also 207 currently identified gifted students who elected to remain at their home schools and opt out of gifted services.

Not by choice, however, parents say.

Brooksville resident Paul Whelan, who spoke at last week's board meeting, told the board he pulled his son out of Explorer's gifted program two weeks ago because of a two-hour bus ride each way to and from school.

"Many children on the east side of this county have bus rides up to two hours, so he was not alone," Whelan told board members. "Many children are not receiving proper treatment by the district due to the location of the new gifted program center. Before, it was in all schools and it was easy access for all students, not just a few."

After the district held free screening sessions over the summer to identify more local children for the gifted center, approximately 50 new students were identified.

While an average IQ is thought to be in the range of 85 to 115, a student is defined as "gifted" across the state if he or she scores at least two standard deviations above the mean IQ score of 130 (minus the standard "error of measurement" of three points) and meets at least one characteristic of a gifted student on the state's standard scale or checklist.

In Hernando County, a student can also qualify for the program under Plan B - or a socioeconomic policy meant to assist various subgroups - if they have a mean IQ score of 120 and are a member of an underrepresented group.

Approximately 16 of the 50 students identified as gifted over the summer were identified under Plan B, Dofka said.

She also negated the rumor that students receiving gifted services bring in approximately $2,100 in additional state funding per child for the district.

"You're lucky if a (district) gets $1,000 per kid," she said, explaining that the specific amount of each student is determined through a complex state funding formula.

Parents weren't so sure, and stuck to the numbers.

"We need gifted studies at all schools so all gifted children will have the opportunity to attend in a timely manner," Whelan said, pointing out that more than 40 percent of district's gifted students did not choose to attend the program in the first place.

"Hernando County will end up with approximately 40 percent less gifted state funding, 40 percent less teachers in the classrooms, 40 percent less students receiving gifted services and an even bigger mess for next year's budget unless they act now to reinstate services at local schools," added Jeff Fuller, a Brooksville resident whose daughter opted to stay at her home school.

However, the primary issue is not money, but whether students are getting appropriate gifted services, officials said.

Last year, the district reported 2.5 percent of its 22,708 students as gifted. The current state average is 4.9.

"All kids have the option of going to Explorer to get the service, and we would highly recommend that they do that," Dofka said. "We think they have a top-notch program from our gifted students, we're very excited about it and we think they should take advantage of it."

The school's principal, Dominick Ferello, agreed, and said it will just take time for the program to attract an even greater percentage of the area's gifted students.

"The group that didn't want to come, didn't come," he said. "Initially, I could have stood on my head and they weren't going to come. But I've had nothing but accolades for what's going on, and honestly, I think we're doing great."