Next month, Bowling Green Junior High School will have a professional opinion as to whether it’s meeting gifted students’ needs.

To that end, the school recently underwent a review by education professionals.

The review was led by Dr. Linda Andrews, an internationally known education consultant who has helped develop gifted and talented programs in Japan as well as leading the gifted education program for the Georgia Department of Education, and Dr. Bonnie Cramond, a professor in the gifted and creative education department at the University of Georgia.

The consultants spent two days interviewing parents, students, teachers and district officials to develop a review and will turn over the results next month.

Penny Masden, principal of Bowling Green Junior High School, said the review is an opportunity to determine if all students are receiving an opportunity for service and if there is a generally positive attitude about the gifted program.

Masden said there has been so much interest in the program, the school would like to expand it if possible.

“We want to determine our strengths, weaknesses and impact of student community at large,” Masden said. “We want to be able to go forward with a clear plan to implement better services to our gifted and talented students and we want to improve, expand and be sure we’re meeting the needs of students.”

Due to lack of funding and the ever-present threat of budget cuts, city school officials have used creative means to extend gifted services to students at the middle school level.

Funding is available for students in kindergarten through fifth grade to meet weekly with a gifted and talented teacher for pull-out services, but that is not the case at the middle and high school levels.

Jennifer Davis, director of elementary and secondary programs, said the entire district receives only $43,000 for the gifted program, money which doesn’t even pay the salary of one teacher at the elementary school level.

Davis said the middle school students are placed in standard classrooms but receive supplemental material in an effort to challenge them beyond standard curriculum.

Some seventh-graders move on to study algebra and there are many eighth-graders who begin taking as many as three high school classes for credit.

There are an estimated 220 gifted students out of 900 at the middle school, and Davis said the school wanted to open itself up to review to seek suggestions to improve the program with limited funding.

Already, the district is making efforts to provide teachers with professional development in gifted teaching skills to offer the most to the students without pulling them out for special sessions.

“It is certainly not perfect. We just try to make an effort to meet students where they are and challenge them,” she said. “We just want to keep improving, and that’s an ongoing journey for sure.”

In the entire district, about 20 percent of students have demonstrated a gifted or talented ability in one or more areas: general intellectual, specific academics (such as math, reading, social studies or science), creativity, leadership or visual and performing arts.

Davis said it’s important that these students’ needs are met just like any other student with special needs.

“There’s so much potential with these kids,” Davis said. “Yet funding is so limited so we have to try things within our own means.”

Joe Tinius, superintendent of Bowling Green Independent Schools, said the transition point from elementary to middle school is difficult, and faculty, staff and the school’s Site Based Decision Making Council felt it was a good time to look at the gifted program.

“I think everyone is hoping this can make a difference,” Tinius said.