This Wake high school will resume in-person classes. It won’t stay all virtual.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Crossroads FLEX will hold in-person courses at Cary High in spring 2026.
- District asks parent to submit interest forms while course schedules develop.
- Program moved online after officials cited business zoning and a 49-person limit.
Students at a small Wake County high school will be able to resume in-person classes this school year — but at a different and temporary location.
Students at Crossroads FLEX switched to online-only instruction when they returned from winter break on Monday due to zoning issues limiting how many people can be on campus. But in an update posted on the school’s website, the Wake County school system said it’s actively working on a plan to offer some in-person classes at Cary High School during the second semester that starts Jan. 20.
“Crossroads FLEX classes offered on the Cary High campus will be taught by Crossroads FLEX teachers and attended only by Crossroads FLEX students,” Wake said. “This arrangement will be limited to the spring semester of 2025–26 only.”
Wake said that details such as specific courses, schedules and logistics are still being developed.
To help with planning, Wake asked parents to fill out a form by Friday saying if they’re interested in attending in-person classes at Cary High or finishing out the school year taking all virtual courses. The district says filling out the form won’t commit a student to a final schedule at this time.
Crossroads FLEX students will finish out the final two weeks of the fall semester in virtual instruction.
Current location no longer option for in-person classes
Crossroads FLEX opened in 2016 on Dillard Drive in Cary in office space next to the Wake County school system’s main headquarters. Its 149 students take between six and 10 hours a week of in-person classes with the rest of their schoolwork being done online or on their own time.
The hybrid schedule has appealed to students such as athletes and performers.
But Wake had been using the office building for classes since 2016 even though the district acknowledges it’s zoned for business and not educational use. Until October, Wake says it planned to upgrade the facility for educational use before determining it would be too expensive.
On Dec. 3, Crossroads FLEX families were told the school will relocate to a temporary campus in Garner for the 2026-27 school year.
On Dec. 16 — just two days before winter break — Wake told families that students would finish the fall semester in remote instruction. The district said the Town of Cary and the Wake County Fire Marshal were limiting them to a capacity of 49 people in the building.
Return of in-person classes welcomed
The switch angered many families who said they didn’t want to return to the days of COVID learning when only online courses were offered. Superintendent Robert Taylor is hosting a forum for families on Jan. 14 at the school board’s meeting room in Cary.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction — still curious about the logistics/how this will work to embed FLEX into another WCPSS high school, but I am glad they listened to the feedback about 100% virtual being a showstopper for the student body, and teachers, generally,” Jodi Bulmer, president of the Crossroads FLEX PTSA, said in an email Tuesday.
The news of in-person classes returning was a relief for Mikel Bass after she watched her children struggle Monday with problems such as the camera on their computer not working. Bass said students are losing valuable instructional time having only online classes.
“In-person learning is the only option our students want,” Bass said in an email Tuesday. “To offer our students anything else is to compromise what’s best for them. No one wants more virtual options or transfers to other schools.”
Rachael Sylvester said her daughter welcomes not having to be fully virtual for the rest of the school year. But Sylvester said Wake said needs to work on finding a permanent home for the school.
“I hope that once the details for the second semester of this school year are finalized, district leadership will again engage with FLEX families to collaboratively address the building plan for the next school year — ideally in a more central location than what has been proposed,” Sylvester said in an email.
This story was originally published January 6, 2026 at 10:34 AM.
