Have you considered acceleration? You're armed with test scores that say that he's working well below his ability levels, so skipping him ahead to 2nd grade is a viable alternative to the gifted program.
Boys present a bit of a bigger challenge when it comes to grade-skipping, though, because of the physical nature of their social interactions. Another alternative would be for him to spend part of his day in a 2nd grade class, doing math and/or language arts. Some schools end up creating combination classes of 1st/2nd grades just to accomodate this.
Just some thoughts.
