NORTH BRANCH — Some Minnesota school districts that shaved a day off their weekly calendar to save money are returning to five day weeks in the fall.

North Branch is voluntarily adding back the day after a financial crisis has eased. Two others — Onamia and Clearbrook-Gonvick — have no choice but to shift back to five days after having applications to renew their four-day schedule denied by the state Education Department.

Many of the 11 school districts that gave students three days off for every four days in the classroom will be back to a traditional schedule by the 2015-16 school year.

In North Branch, the shorter week helped save about $250,000 a year. But many students spent 10 hours in combined commute and classroom time, and were gone even longer if they participated in extracurricular activities.

Superintendent Deb Henton said she promised four years ago to reinstate a regular schedule once the financial situation improved. The district will receive an additional $3 million in funding over the next two years, which will also help it trim class sizes.

“There are some benefits on a four-day-a-week program, but we live in a five-day-week world,” Henton said.

State education officials directed several other districts to give up four-day schedules in coming years, citing concerns that they haven’t seen adequate academic gains.

“We had teachers tell me with younger kids, it just didn’t work to have four days on and three days off,” said interim Onamia Superintendent Keith Lester.

As North Branch swings back, community surveys show a split in opinion between parents that welcome the regular schedule and those who say they’ll miss that extra day of family time.

“They kept good on their promise to go back, which was awesome,” said Barb Hensch, whose children are in high school. “I am sure it was a very tough decision to do it both ways.”