SALMON (US): After homework and household chores, Bianca Sozzi intends to spend most Fridays next school year pursuing the pastimes of the average American adolescent: listening to music, talking to friends on the phone or playing computer games.

“It will be like another weekend day,” said Sozzi.

Come fall, all Fridays will mark the beginning of a three-day break for Sozzi and 1,029 other public school students in this small Idaho community.

In parts of the American west such as Salmon, sharply higher fuel prices have prompted a growing number of school districts to save money by shortening the school week to four days.

School systems in such remote, sparsely populated areas, where school bus routes can stretch across many miles and take hours to complete, say far higher transport and other energy-related expenses are squeezing already shrinking budgets.

The number of states sanctioning districts with four-day school weeks has at least doubled since a survey by the National School Boards Association in 2003 showed nine states and roughly a hundred districts adopting the measure.

“Rural districts are really struggling to keep things going and high fuel costs aren’t helping,” said Lynn Schow, superintendent of the Oneida School District in southeast Idaho.

To meet state guidelines for the minimum number of class hours, districts on a reduced weekly schedule have extended the school day by more than an hour.—Reuters