The State Center Community College District Board of Trustees approved a modified version of Chancellor Deborah Blue’s mid-year reduction plan on Tuesday night, paving the way for a six-week summer schools session.

Before the board took up the issue of the district’s mid-year reductions, 13 different speakers, both current students and alumni spoke on the prior plan, which would have eliminated all summer school prior to June 30, creating a four-week summer school.

In total, the district needed to make about $2.5 million in cuts to balance the 2012-2013 budget. In the original proposal, the district would cut $537,000 from summer school. The amended plan, passed by a 6-1 voice vote, cut $58,000 from summer school and cut the remaining $479,000 from the undesignated contingency funds of the district’s campuses, all of which are part of the district’s multi-million dollar reserve fund.

After the vote, Trustee Patrick Patterson, the lone “nay” vote, said that he voted no because he opposed all cuts.