Rapid City suspends gifted program

By Andrea J. Cook, Journal Staff Writer | Thursday, September 07, 2006

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RAPID CITY -- Academically gifted elementary- and middle-school students will be on their own to find extra mental stimulation this year while the Rapid City School District's gifted program is redesigned.

Pat Peel, director of student achievement, will ask the school board to suspend The Academically Gifted program when the board meets at 5:30 p.m. today in the City/School Administration Center.

During the coming year, new gifted students will not be identified, and no programming will be provided in elementary and middle schools. About 57 elementary students and 210 middle school students are affected by the decision.

Peel decided to suspend the gifted program when she couldn't hire a middle school TAG coordinator this year.

Without a middle school coordinator, the district's remaining two coordinators are the only ones left to work with students at the district's two high schools, five middle schools and 15 elementary schools.

During the coming year, elementary TAG coordinator Donna Silver-Miller and Kathryn Sosa, the high school coordinator, will focus their efforts at high school while working on a review and reorganization of the district's gifted program. The women will also assist with an audit of the school district's advanced-placement program.

"This is a bridging year," Peel said.

A review of the district's gifted program started last year. A committee representing the school, parents, community and post-secondary education held a series of public meetings. That committee requested outside help with the review.

Jann Leppien and Karen Westberg, national consultants on gifted education, will meet with the committee and teachers in October to assist with the program review, Peel said.

Many people would like to see the district's gifted program expanded, according to school-board member Eric Abrahamson. Abrahamson has two sons who were involved in the TAG program before they graduated from high school.

Abrahamson said that although he is not pleased about suspending the program, the district doesn't have better options.

The district needs a gifted program that is meaningful, or it must find another way to address the needs of its gifted students, he said.

"The TAG program has atrophied at the elementary- and middle-school levels since the cuts were made several years ago," Abrahamson said.

Rapid City needs a good gifted program if it wants to stay competitive in attracting businesses and jobs, Abrahamson said.

"A lot of those people who might move jobs here or develop jobs here are going to be looking for accelerated programs for their kids or their employees' programs," he said.

If there is a hidden benefit to the temporary suspension of the program, it is that for the coming year, high school gifted students will have someone at each school focused exclusively on college advising, Abrahamson said.

In the spring, Silver-Miller and Sosa will begin working with gifted fifth-graders and eighth-graders to help them make the transition to middle school and high school, Peel said.

Parents of gifted students are being notified by mail about the suspension of the program. Peel also plans to meet with parents in the coming weeks.

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com