Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 8, Kannapolis City Schools will make minor adjustments to its bell schedules to help buses arrive at schools on time.

Increased bus ridership has meant that extra time is needed to pick up and deliver students this year. The result has been that many buses have been delayed — especially in the afternoons. As a result, Kannapolis City Schools will make a slight adjustment to its bell schedules so buses can be on time to pick up and deliver students.

Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 8, Kannapolis Intermediate School and Kannapolis Middle School will dismiss 10 minutes earlier each afternoon. Elementary schools will begin and end their schedules five minutes earlier each day, and A.L. Brown High School will dismiss five minutes later at 3:30 p.m.

Kannapolis Intermediate/Kannapolis Middle — new schedule, 7:15 a.m.-1:55 p.m.

Elementary Schools — new schedule, 8:05 a.m.-2:55 p.m.

A.L. Brown — new schedule, 8:40 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

The changes were designed to help keep buses on time but also to cause as little disruption as possible for parents, students, staff and schools.

“We know how important people’s time is,” said KCS Superintendent Dr. Pam Cain. “That is why we want to make sure we don’t keep students waiting at school for the bus to arrive. However, we also want to respect people’s schedules and keep the changes to our bell times as minor as possible. We are only changing our schedules by a few minutes at each school, but it will make a big difference in keeping our buses on time. We appreciate people’s understanding and think the changes will make things better for our students and their families.”

Kannapolis City Schools has 33 buses and approximately 3,000 bus riders. In order to transport all of those students, the district has to use separate start times for schools. The same buses that pick up students at KIS and KMS go to the elementary schools and then to A.L. Brown High School to pick up those students as well. Making the slight changes to the bell schedules will allow more time for buses to make their stops and get to the next school on time. The new changes will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 8.