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By KNIGHT STIVENDER
Staff Writer

FRANKLIN — The future is uncertain for the county's gifted education program.

Legislation coming before the General Assembly in January seeks to remove gifted services from under the umbrella of special education.

That would mean there would be no guarantee that gifted students would be eligible for any extra services beyond what is offered to typical students.

''My general feeling — and I could be totally wrong — is that it seems like there's a higher chance it'll come out this year,'' said gifted education coordinator Carol Hendlmyer.

Hendlmyer said she feels fairly confident that Williamson County will continue to take extra care of gifted students, regardless of whether state law changes, regardless of whether gifted services are part of special education.

They wouldn't receive the benefits of an Individualized Education Plan, but they would still receive the attention of the county's 20 gifted teachers, Hendlmyer said.

However, a group of parents who perceive that gifted education already is on the outs in this county is not so optimistic.

''We've seen a lot of changes in the gifted program in Williamson County,'' said Wendy Wilson, whose three children all have been served by the program.

Her oldest sons graduated from Franklin High. Her daughter now is an eighth-grader at Grassland Middle.

''It's like it keeps getting watered down.''

Wilson said she wouldn't worry so much of if gifted services were pulled from the special education umbrella. After all, she said, ''Maybe that would be a good thing. Our gifted teachers do spend a lot of time on paperwork.''

However, like a lot of parents, she's worried about what's going on right now in Williamson County, with or without action on behalf of the state legislature.

She attended a meeting last week of fellow gifted parents who wanted to ask Hendlmyer about the status of gifted education. What they say they've seen and heard this year is discouraging.

Jean Godwin, for one, would like to see more gifted services in elementary and middle school. She has one daughter at Franklin High and another at Hunters Bend, both of whom have been identified as gifted.

''Franklin High School has a wonderful approach to gifted education. They group these kids together and let them learn with and from each other,'' Godwin said. ''The sad thing is, many of these children need that kind of connection with other kids like them much earlier and they're not doing very much in elementary and middle school.

''This is not the fault of the gifted teachers. This is the fault of the system.''

She's one of a handful of parents who speaks very positively about the gifted services at Franklin High School. Many of the most vocal advocates for beefing up the system are FHS parents who feel they are witnessing the watering-down of their children's program.

However, Franklin children actually receive a bit more than their peers at other high schools.

Franklin is the only high school in the county to offer two special English classes primarily for gifted students. Up until this year, those classes, called cluster classes, served only those children identified as gifted. That pleased many parents, but it posed some problems for the school system.

For example, some years Franklin would have, say, 35 gifted students.

State law limits class sizes in high school to only 30 students. That meant that it took two classes to accommodate all the gifted students, but those classes only had 17 and 18 students each.

It wasn't a wise use of taxpayer money, Hendlmyer said, nor was it fair for general education teachers who had so many more students in their classes. So the county decided last year to place some honors students who haven't been identified as gifted into the gifted classrooms.

That's OK with Wilson, but it's caused other parents to wonder whether there's a point anymore to gifted services. It's also sparked rumors that the cluster classes will be dissolving altogether.

Still more parents are worried that because Franklin is the only high school still offering some version of cluster classes for gifted students, the central office will decide to eliminate them there, too.

''My feeling is, why do we need to change something that's working just because other high schools don't do it? I'm not really sure of the future,'' Wilson said.

Hendlmyer said she left last week's meeting hoping maybe some of the parents felt reassured about the county's commitment to gifted services.

''Is there a dumbing down of curriculum? I don't believe so,'' she said. ''But that's a concern for a lot of parents, and I understand that.''