Full-Time Gift School Board Considers Weeklong Classes For Gifted

Fifty gifted fifth- and sixth-grade students in Spokane schools might get their own full-time classes next year.

A proposal to create the district’s first full-time gifted classes could eventually expand to seventh and eighth grades as well.

School District 81 board members said Wednesday night they favor the idea but delayed a vote for two weeks.

Classes would be held at Libby Center, 2900 E. First, where gifted students now attend special classes just one day a week.

Parents of gifted students will be polled next week to see if there’s enough interest to create one or two pilot classes.

The school district offers several programs for high-achieving students.

Students in grades 2 through 6 attend Tessera, a one-day-a-week program at Libby Center. Seventh- and eighth-graders can take advanced language arts and social studies classes, part of the Extended Learning Program.

High school students are offered honors classes to prepare them for college.

If too many families apply for the new pilot classes, the district proposal calls for students to be selected through a lottery.

Peggy Soden, who co-chairs the gifted education magnet committee, said many parents of gifted children welcome more challenging classrooms.

“They didn’t think their children were being served five days a week,” Soden said. “Some struggling students really need to be in a more intense environment with their intellectual peers.”

Elitism and transportation problems top the concerns of board members, who delayed a vote until their next meeting March 26.

“We need to make sure we don’t have a second-class class,” said board member Christie Querna, referring to students who remain in regular classrooms.

Board member Rob Fukai said he expects cries of elitism because some people don’t think gifted students should get special programs.

“We do that with our athletes all the time, and everyone thinks that’s great,” Fukai said, referring to varsity teams. “But somehow they don’t translate that to the gifted proposal.”

Problems might also arise when parents are asked to provide transportation for the classes at Libby Center, said Al Fein, principal at Lincoln Heights Elementary School.

“There was a lot of concern from elementary principals,” Fein said. “There may be some families precluded … because of their economic circumstances or because both parents are working.”

“That probably would be one of my big concerns as well,” said board member Terrie Beaudreau.

The task force also recommended a change for those second-grade students who attend gifted classes one day a week. Under the new plan, Tessera teachers would instead take their lessons to all second-grade classrooms through periodic visits.

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