The Saucon Valley School District’s gifted program has seen a few modifications.

The school board received an update at the Jan.13 meeting from gifted education consultant Dr. Christina Anderson.

Anderson was brought on board last year to lead a task force consisting of parents, students, district administrators and board members. She was initially asked to explore and define the term “gifted.”

“Every district has a different definition,” she said. “Everyone’s definition of gifted is different.”

The task force decided the definition should include a student with a higher level of intellectual, academic, leadership and creativity ability, as well as the consideration of factors that may impede the identification of such abilities.

According to Anderson, a pre-screening process was also included to beef up the definition. Student data, she stressed to the board, needs to be compiled to determine if a particular student qualifies for the program.

Additionally, Anderson said the process of accelerated learning should be eliminated. Acceleration, she said, prevents a student from reaching his or her full academic potential.

The district will next look at developing a screening and identification process, as well as re-designing the program.

In other business, the board approved setting the federal standard business mileage rate for the district to 54 cents from 57.5 cents, effective Jan. 1.

Also during the meeting, the board announced the 2016-17 budget timeline.

The preliminary budget containing a proposed tax rate increase must be submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education by May 31. The district deadline to adopt the proposed budget is June 10 and the deadline to make the proposed budget available for public viewing is June 20. The district deadline to adopt the final budget is June 30.