Coach, I'm in Florida, too, well north of you, but wanted to reassure that I know of no such thing in our SD or either of the adjacent SD's.
One district has no services other than in-school pull-outs through at least middle school, with some magnets and academies at the high school level.
Other District has two separate magnets at the elementary level for gifted and a third focused on science and math - all of which start at 2nd grade. There are different magnets at the middle school and high school level as well. As far as I know none of these magnet programs eliminate G&T programming at individual schools - access is limited at the magnets so some in-school programming stays in place.
Two other adjacent districts have some in-school pull-outs at elementary level, but I know less about them.
I would be questioning things like space limitations - if there are currently 100 identified gifted children in the third grade in that district, but only spaces for 60 at the new center, how do they intend to resolve that? Under state law as I understand it, once a child has been identified as gifted, some options must be available, 'tho they may be maddeningly inadequate. I've had pretty good luck trudging through the county school board policies on their web sites as a starting point - they refer directly to the state laws and regulations administered by the Department of Education.
Is transportation addressed - do they bus or expect parents to provide? Since the center would appear to pull form the whole county, it might mean quite long bus rides, even if the district provides transportation.
Just thinking of counter arguments - how do they anticipate dealing with children identified in the middle of the school year - no services until next school year or yank them around?
Gotta tell you though, with our current situation, I think I would jump for joy at the prospect of a gifted center, but that's probably because I don't have that "gifted services at an excellent K-8 school" that you have.
Hope this perspective helps a little! Sounds to me like there is more to the story - budget issues are looming large in my area. All money saving options are on the table, even some really unpleasant ones, like what it sounds like your SD is considering by consolidating gifted services. Keep digging and good luck.
