PENDER COUNTY — Schools on the east side of Pender County are almost to the end of their third week under a staggered bell schedule, with the district optimistic about the implementation so far. Parents, however, have found problems with unpredictable pick-up times and long commutes for students, and indicate the system’s inadequacy at addressing real problems.
READ MORE: 2025 report card: Pender cuts low-performing schools in half, NHC, Brunswick see increases
At the beginning of the school year, Pender County Schools implemented three start times for elementary, middle and high schools on the eastern side of the county. Schools affected by the change include North Topsail Elementary, South Topsail Elementary, Surf City Elementary, Topsail Annandale Elementary, Surf City Middle, Topsail Middle, and Topsail High.
High schools are the earliest starters, with the bell ringing at 7:10 a.m., followed by elementary schools at 7:55 a.m. and middle schoolers starting at 8:40 a.m. The release schedule runs from 2:05 p.m. and ends at 3:35 p.m.
The goal of the staggered schedule was to alleviate strain on Pender County bus drivers, particularly the number of double and triple routes they were having to make. Though it was determined a three-tiered schedule on the western end of the county would actually add double routes so it was avoided there.
A staggered schedule for the new K-8 campus is also part of North Carolina Department of Transportation’s conditions to obtain a driveway permit for that school.
With the implementation, the district has decreased the eastern side’s double routes from 38 last year to 20 this year. Still, parents say the three-tiered bell schedule is a distraction from the real problem: not having enough bus drivers.
Like school districts across the nation, PCS struggles with attracting and retaining drivers due to the licensure requirements and oftentimes low pay. As of February 2025, PCS bus drivers now earn a starting hourly wage of $17.75, an increase from the previous $16.26.
The three-tier schedule was unpopular with parents worried about the effects it could have on kids since it was first introduced in 2023. The school board voted to adopt putting the entire district under a three-tiered schedule, but walked it back four days before it was supposed to go into effect.
In 2024, staff conducted a survey on three options for the bell schedule; the most popular only received 37.7% of parent approval. The middle schools would start the earliest at 7:30 a.m., elementary kids to follow at 8:15 a.m. and high schoolers at 9 a.m. Though this option caused scheduling problems, particularly with AP and college-course students needing to travel to other campuses, and was scrapped again.
The topic came up again in September that year, when NCDOT told the district it could withhold a driveway permit without a staggered schedule at the K-8 school. The current schedule was approved in June, with board members Jennifer Hansen, Tom Reeves and Chair Beth Burns voting in favor. Jason Spivey and Don Hall dissented.
Since the first day of school, parents have been vocal about three-tiered system problems in social media groups, noting their children, particularly ones in afterschool activities, are having some trouble adjusting to new sleep schedules, as anticipated by parents before. The biggest concern, and adding to their children’s stress levels, is not being able to rely on the bus to be on time.
Kiley Wilkinson has children in Topsail Annandale Elementary, Topsail Middle and Topsail High, but has only had bus issues with her middle schooler. She said the bus is supposed to arrive at 7:38 a.m., but last week Wilkinson went to drop off her elementary schooler and by the time she returned home, around 8 a.m., her other child was still waiting for the bus.
PCS does have an app where parents and students can track their bus and receive notifications when it is nearing the stop. Wilkinson had noticed the bus was going to be 10 minutes late, though that proved inaccurate. Parents on social media have also decried the app’s unreliability, as times don’t correspond with reality — and the app doesn’t work if a child is transferred to another bus at the last minute.
“You have teenage girls standing on the side of the road alone, the parents are going to school or to work and they’re by themselves — that’s not safe,” Wilkinson said.
By 8:20 a.m. last week, Wilkinson said her child’s bus still hadn’t arrive, so she drove her kid to school. As she was pulling out of their neighborhood, the bus arrived, but Wilkinson said it blew past the stop, leaving another girl there. Wilkinson ferried both girls to school.
Port City Daily reached out to two other mothers who reported their middle schoolers’ buses being consistently late, most of the time upward of 20 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes to an hour late in the afternoon. The problems are concentrated at the middle schools; the three-tier schedule means they are third in line for pick-ups and thus getting the brunt of any tardiness on the routes before them.
“These changes are just causing more chaos due to the lack of communication,” Whitney Kay said, noting any alterations sent out from the district are unclear or last-minute. “The new schedule was supposed to alleviate traffic and bus shortages, but it has been a nightmare.”
Evidence of the chaos shows up in the amount of changes to transportation requested this year compared to last. According to Director of Transportation Britton Overton, there were 1,050 transportation changes at the start of the 2024/2025 school year. This year there were approximately 5,400 transportation changes requested.
Overton told Port City Daily he’s received many complaints from parents; he noted they were helpful in updating bus routes.
Overton also addressed the discourse at the school board’s meeting on Tuesday. He said his team gives the system two weeks to settle before taking students off the bus rider list who haven’t utilized the service. Overton said removing unneeded stops will help with efficiency.
He also said the late bus times are attributed to something that’s out of his control — traffic in the Hampstead area, particularly on the busy U.S. Highway 17.
“Traffic is a big issue; I don’t know how to fix that, just we need a bypass,” Overton said, referring to the Hampstead Bypass construction underway. Though the full bypass won’t be finished until 2030.
Despite the challenges, Overton said the new system is working in some capacity, specifically with reducing instructional time lost due to bus tardies. Last year, kids were losing an hour to an hour-and-a-half of time; he claimed that’s basically gone away this year.
Overton’s statement doesn’t align with some reports from parents, including Wilkinson, who said her daughter has been almost an hour late to school every single day.
“Our children deserve better,” she said. “I feel like we pay our taxes and do what we’re supposed to do as citizens, and they’re kind of dropping the ball.”
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