The Orcutt Union School District Board of Trustees this week approved reducing one classified position and eliminating another that catered to the After School Education and Safety (ASES) program at Olga Reed Elementary in Los Alamos.

The trustees voted to approve the layoffs during a regular meeting Wednesday night — reducing the hours of a media specialist at Olga Reed from six hours to two, and cutting the ASES recreation director because the position is no longer needed, Superintendent Bob Bush said.

Both layoffs affect the same classified staff employee at Olga Reed, who has been given another job for next school year and will not be out of work, Bush said.

The ASES program, designed to provide literacy, academic enrichment and safe alternatives for students in kindergarten through ninth grade, was spending more resources than were available through its three-year grant, according to Bush.

“It’s a great program,” Bush said. “We want to keep it, but you can’t start using general fund money. We just reorganized.”

Olga Reed is the only Orcutt campus that qualifies for the ASES program, which typically serves a student population with a lower socioeconomic status and a greater need for enrichment.

Bush said the ASES program, which runs from after school until 6 p.m., carried over from when the Orcutt district absorbed the rural one-school Los Alamos district in July 2011.

Olga Reed’s ASES program operates on $140,000 annually, and serves 140 of nearly 200 total students in K-8, said Joe Dana, district director of charter programs and Olga Reed principal.

“For our families, it’s a really important part of what Olga Reed offers to them,” Dana said. “It effectively extends the school day.”

Dana said he doesn’t think the program would be negatively affected by the layoff, but guesses there might need to be some reallocation of responsibilities among the seven homework coaches, who also lead exercise and recreation activities.

“We still expect to serve the same number of children next year,” he said.

— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.