Dear Treecritter,
I am so sorry you have to deal with this, and having been there myself I really understand what you are dealing with.
Can you tell us what you have already done and who you have spoken to? Depending on the size of your district (in a huge district going to the board prob. won't work), I agree with bh14 that I wouldn't give up until I had gone all the way to the super. I def. would not give up if a Principal says no. There are so many reasons schools do not want to skip (or do subject acceleration) and most of them just are not valid.
Also, how is the social fit for your child in the current grade? I am dealing with almost an opposite issue, where they may want to full skip him (because easier for schedule) and I would prefer to stick with subject acceleration (although somewhat open to a one year skip). Part of this is because he has a huge group of friends in his grade that he really likes and enjoys, so we are lucky that we don't seem to see the social difficulties with same age peers that some gifted kids sometimes encounter (on the other hand, we have noticed increased frustration with some of his friends, so that may be an increasing issue).
If you can let us know what you have done, maybe we will have some ideas about what else you can try. I am actually in the middle of writing a paper for my masters program on the disconnect between the research and attitudes toward acceleration. I assume you have read Nation Deceived? I actually think a book by Southern and Jones called "The Academic Acceleration of Gifted Children" might be better for talking to skeptics. The reason I think this is because it is published by Teachers College, Columbia University, which is really well-known and respected in straight up education circles (as opposed to gifted education, and those two worlds do not always connect very well) and also the name "Nation Deceived" seems to make people uncomfortable and defensive. I used it at my school but had to preface my discussion to it (Nation Deceived) by saying how I was put off by the name myself and explaining how it wasn't directed at educators, but all of us, etc. etc. Finally, the Southern and Jones book really pulls apart the research, which I found very useful.
Cat
