Don't backslide on gifted education programs, state is told

CHESAPEAKE

The message was clear: Don't go backward on gifted education.

At a public hearing Monday night, most of the 17 people who spoke said proposed state regulations would do just that.

The Virginia Department of Education is holding four regional forums on gifted education as part of a comment period that closes Friday. The state Board of Education could adopt new rules as soon as October, said Vice President Ella P. Ward of Chesapeake, who represented the board at the hearing.

Ward said she heard two main concerns. First, that a change from five-year to one-year gifted plans for school divisions could stifle innovation and reduce oversight. Second, that a change in funding language could allow divisions to divert money to other programs.

Linda Harkin, supervisor of gifted education in Chesapeake Public Schools, has some of the same worries.

"We are concerned that these funds could be used for the wrong purpose," she said at the hearing, which drew more than 60 people to Oscar F. Smith High School. "A vision without resources is a hallucination."

Pat Schapowal of Chesapeake said one of her children could do double-digit multiplication in his head at age 4. "If we don't support these children for the future, for our country, we're doing a disservice to them and to ourselves," u0094 she said.

Department spokesman Charles Pyle said some of the changes were proposed to align policy with state code. Ward said others would help identify more students as gifted.

But several speakers said the new guidelines wouldn't reflect current research or practices.

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com