CLARA CITY — A rural school district in west-central Minnesota wants to keep its four-day week.

Some Minnesota districts switched to a four-day schedule during the economic slowdown as a way to save costs. With the financial crisis over, the Minnesota Education Department is ordering those districts to return to a traditional, five-day week by next fall.

But MACCRAY schools — as the Maynard-Clara City-Raymond school district is known — want to stick with the four-day week.

The four-day schedule that runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. has proved popular with students, parents, teachers and even local businesses, who hire teens to work on their off-day, the Star Tribune reported. District officials say they have saved thousands of dollars on busing, heating and other administrative costs.

“It just works really well for us,” MACCRAY Schools Superintendent Brian Koslofsky said. “Even though we have a healthy budget now, (the money saved) we can put into the classroom.”