LISBON — Extending the Columbia County Career and Technical Center’s instructional day by five minutes is expected to bring in more state funding each year.

The career center governing board recently approved the five minutes per day increase, resulting in a new start time of 7:45 a.m. for the 2026-27 school year.

Elizabeth Wright, who serves as public relations co-coordinator for the career center, explained that increasing the time increases lab hours.

“Career and technical education funding is based upon lab hours. We are currently in lab for 525 hours. By increasing each day by five minutes, we are adding 15 hours to the time students are in their career tech lab resulting in 540 lab hours,” she said.

She went on to explain that when a district provides a maximum of 540 lab hours, they receive additional funding.

“This will result in the school receiving an additional $127,000 per year,” she said.

The funds will be used for career tech equipment.

In other matters during the regular board meeting, High School Principal Greg Woolman presented information and data regarding chronic absenteeism.

Woolman detailed that the CCCTC chronic absenteeism rate is 13.3 percent, well below the state average of 25.1 percent.

His report comes on the heels of other reports indicating that chronic absenteeism is a growing problem for schools locally and across the state.

Chronic absenteeism is defined by the U.S. Department of Education as missing 10 percent or more of the school year.

In yet other matters during the meeting it was announced that there are 16 students competing in 12 competitions at the Skills USA State Competition in Columbus on May 5-6.

Career Center Adult Education Director Jenna Fox also told the board that 43 students are now qualified to sit for the NCLEX exam following graduation from the LPN-RN program.

The graduation ceremony was held on April 16.

She also said she next LPN-RN program is currently underway.

The board approved agenda items during the meeting, including the hiring of Michelle Fitzsimmons as Guidance Administrator for the start of the 2026-27 school year, and awarding Adult Education Administrative contracts for Shannon Allen, Jamie Pytash, Heather Raidel, and Gavin Whitman.