New Wake County high school to offer flexible hours for students
Wake County’s newest high school is drawing interest from student-athletes and performers, even though it won’t offer extracurricular activities.
The Crossroads Flex High School is scheduled to open in August in Cary with a mix of online and in-person courses that provide students with the ability to schedule classes in the morning, afternoon or evening. The program is geared toward students who are involved in outside activities that make it hard to attend class during regular school hours.
“It may be if you’re going to be really great at ballet or you want to be an Olympic swimmer and you’re devoting six, seven, eight hours a day to that work as a young teenager, it makes it very, very difficult obviously to be at Green Hope High School, for example, from 7:25 a.m. to 2:18 when the bell rings,” Drew Cook, the Wake County school system’s senior director for high school programs, told parents at an information session last week.
Cook said the program also could benefit students who need to work during the regular school day or who don’t do well in the large, traditional high-school setting. Wake hopes to open Crossroads Flex with 125 students in ninth through 12th grades.
Wake’s online application period for Crossroads Flex, which includes recommendation letters and a student essay, ends April 29.
“This is a massive undertaking to move this forward and be this forward thinking,” said Suzanne Davis, a Holly Springs parent, at the information meeting.
Wake County school administrators have studied the idea of a high school that operates on a flexible schedule for the past few years. The concept moved toward reality when the school board signed a long-term lease to house the school at 5651 Dillard Drive, next to the district’s main headquarters in Cary.
The district is trying to recruit the right kind of student for the school. Cook said students will have to be self-motivated, self-directed and be able to manage their time well.
“We want to make sure the match is right,” Cook said. “This is not for everybody.”
Most courses will be taken online so students can do them off-campus. But students also will be required to come in periodically to meet with a counselor and teachers. The teachers will teach courses face to face and offer tutoring.
Crossroads Flex will be the first school in the district where every student is provided a computer to use on campus.
Parents had many questions at last week’s meeting, including the minimum number of hours and whether they will be measured weekly or monthly.
Davis said she needs to know more about the time requirements because families will be responsible for providing their own transportation to the school. But Davis said she’d like her 15-year-old daughter, Madison, to attend because Crossroads Flex will provide a more personalized learning environment than the one she has at Fuquay-Varina High.
School officials say they’re trying to get as many questions answered as they can before the application period closes.
“You’re on the cutting edge, and it may very well provide you with exactly what your child needs,” Cook told parents. “But there could potentially be some headaches and some growing pains that come along with being innovative and starting a new program.”
Paula Keener came to last week’s meeting to learn more about the school on behalf of her fellow parents at Sunset Gymnastics in Holly Springs. She said the lack of details may cause some parents to be reluctant to apply.
“It’s a good idea, but they need to put a little more detail around it,” Keener said.
T. Keung Hui: 919-829-4534, @nckhui
Learn about Crossroads Flex
The application deadline for the Crossroads Flex program is April 29.
Go to http://www.wcpss.net/Page/5423 for information on the program, including a link to the online application.
An information session will be held Wednesday from 6-7 p.m. at the Wake County Public School System’s Crossroads I building, 5625 Dillard Drive in Cary.
This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 6:20 PM with the headline "New Wake County high school to offer flexible hours for students."