PENDER COUNTY — Pender County School District’s three-tiered bus schedule returned to the board of education for a vote on adjustments to the current start times. The changes have middle school starting and ending five minutes later in order to address traffic during arrival and dismissal times.
On Tuesday, June 9, Transportation Director Britton Overton presented the board with two proposed adjustments to the tiered bell schedule. It was implemented this school year to help alleviate double routes due to the district’s bus driver shortage.
The current schedule has high school beginning at 7:10 a.m., elementary school at 7:55 a.m., and middle school at 8:40 a.m. Dismissal times are 2:05 p.m. for high school, 2:50 p.m. for elementary school, and 3:35 p.m. for middle school. These times were implemented just on the east side of the county at North Topsail Elementary, South Topsail Elementary, Surf City Elementary, Topsail Annandale Elementary, Surf City Middle, Topsail Middle, and Topsail High.
READ MORE: PCS says three-tier schedule is making district better, parents not convinced
The tiered bus schedule initially aimed to address the district’s bus driver shortage, which was causing double and even triple routes for the limited numbers of drivers trying to get all students to school at the same time. With the three-tiered system, the district decreased double routes from 38 to 20. No changes were made for schools on the western side as a tiered schedule would end up causing more double routes rather than alleviating them.
As the 2025-26 school year began parents expressed concerns over inconsistent bus pick up and drop offs, student adjustment, overall unreliability, and students arriving to school late. In response, the district claimed the new system was working and effectively reducing tardies. However, they did acknowledge that traffic was a concern and in part to blame for late buses.
Traffic has continued to be a consistent roadblock for the buses throughout the remainder of the academic year. The two possible adjustments proposed to the board of education on Tuesday were introduced in hopes of minimizing the problem by improving traffic flow and creating additional buffer time.
Pender County Schools Spokesperson Bob Fankboner told Port City Daily adjustments needed to be made to address traffic and route challenges such as school arrival and dismissal traffic, parent drop-off and pick-up traffic, and general congestion along the Hampstead/U.S. 17 corridor. He noted that Hampstead Bypass/U.S. 17 ongoing construction has added to these issues.
Option one proposed middle schools start 5 minutes later at 8:45 a.m. and end 5 minutes later at 3:40 p.m. The elementary and high school times would remain unchanged.
The second option pushed up elementary and high school start and end times by 10 minutes, with the high school beginning at 7 a.m. and dismissing at 1:55 p.m. The elementary schools would begin at 7:45 a.m. and dismiss at 2:40 p.m. Middle schools would shift earlier by 5 minutes, starting at 8:35 a.m. and ending at 3:30 p.m.
For option two, the additional time between the middle school and elementary school arrivals and dismissals is expected to create extra routing flexibility — particularly for Topsail Middle and Topsail High due to their shared campus.
Prior to Overton explaining the adjustments, board member Beth Burns expressed reservations regarding the possibility of a 7 a.m start time.
“The feedback that I’ve gotten is a lot of these students, especially over at Topsail High, just have a really hard time getting to school on time right now so going any earlier, I don’t think it’s going to be feasible at this point,” Burns said.
Burns declined Port City Daily’s request for further comment.
Fankboner confirmed current attendance data does not show a connection between lower attendance rates and new schedules. Attendance across the entirety of Pender County School District rose from 92.98% in 2024-25 to 93.28% in 2025-26. Within the schools using the tiered schedule attendance rates were either stable or improved.
Truancy rates requested by Port City Daily are not yet available, so the tiered schedule’s impact on student punctuality cannot yet be determined.
Burns was the only board member to provide feedback on adjustments and put forth a motion for option one, which affected middle school start and end time only. Vice Chairperson Jennifer Hansen seconded and the board unanimously voted in favor of the adjustments.
Tuesday’s vote was just one of many regarding the controversial three-tiered bus schedule.
Pender County parents have taken to social media to express their criticism of the tiered busing system including siblings needing to ride the bus separately, long drop off and pick up lines, and early bus pick up times.
Discussions began for the new bus system in 2022 and by the following year, the board had voted to use a staggered schedule for the 2024-2025 school year, impacting all schools in the district. However, just a few days after the initial vote, it was reversed and pushed back by a year as board members decided more information and feedback was needed before implementation.
Port City Daily had previously reported that after the 2023 vote to implement a three-tiered bus schedule a poll was posted in a Facebook group, Concerned Parents of Hampstead/Surf City Voicing Their Concerns, asking if members were for or against the schedule. Out of 122 participants, 101 voted against.
Despite the 2023 parent disapproval, in June of 2025, the board reaffirmed their decision to have a staggered schedule in the 2025-2026 school year. The vote was a 3-2 decision. Jennifer Hansen, Tom Reeves, and Beth Burns voted in favor of the tiered schedule while Chairman Don Hall and Jason Spivey were the dissenting votes.
Now, a year into the implementation of a tiered schedule, criticism remains.
Fankboner told Port City Daily the district has received feedback from families, students, and staff such as concerns surrounding early start times, student sleep, athletics and extracurricular schedules, Cape Fear Community College class conflicts, pickup and drop-off times, traffic, before-school care, sibling logistics, and if double routes would be fully eliminated.
One father took to social media to complain that two minutes before the morning’s first bell, he was still waiting in a line of drop-off traffic. Another post referred to the schedule as the “worst decision for families and staff.”
Other parents complained of 45 minute lines when waiting to drop off students, 5:30 a.m. bus pick up times, struggles getting siblings in different grades to their schools on time, and children not arriving home from school until 4 p.m.
The district also continues to struggle with bus staffing and staff retention.
Fankboner declined to give a specific number regarding shortages at this time citing staffing levels regularly changing and the 2026-27 school year routes not yet being finalized.
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