After recently meeting with elementary principals, Stanly County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeff James has slightly adjusted start times for elementary schools.

The early start elementary schools — Norwood, Badin, Endy and Locust — will now begin at 7:25 a.m. instead of 7:15 a.m. and will still get out at 2:10 p.m.

The late start schools — Richfield, East Albemarle, Central, Millingport, Aquadale and Stanfield — will now begin at 8:55 a.m. instead of 8:45 a.m. and will still get out at 3:40 p.m.

Of the 19 other school districts in the area, eight of them, including Cabarrus, Rowan and Union, have either the same start time or within five minutes of Stanly’s 7:25 a.m. start time.

For the upcoming school year, buses will pick up children starting at 6:03 a.m., the same time as last year, though James said for parents not to worry when seeing the buses on the road earlier as they start their routes.

Several parents and some school board members were concerned during the June board meeting that buses would pick up students as early as 5:30 a.m.

James warned there will likely be issues during the first week or two, but that’s normal every year. After the first 10 days, another analysis will be performed to make sure all the bus routes are running properly.

Also the new app, Here Comes The Bus, which was piloted at Millingport Elementary in May, will be introduced one at a time to the other schools during the upcoming school year, James said.

The next school board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 6.