The two largest high schools in the Western Maine Conference – Falmouth and Kennebunk – are seeking admission to the Southwestern Maine Activities Association.

Kennebunk Athletic Director Joseph Schwartzman said he would complete the paperwork by Tuesday afternoon after his school board, by a vote of 6 to 4 Monday night, approved his recommendation to return to the SMAA after four years as a WMC member.

Schwartzman and Falmouth AD James Coffey, who filed his school’s formal application earlier this month, will attend the Feb. 2 meeting of SMAA athletic directors at Westbrook High School to present their cases.

“There are a couple factors,” Schwartzman said Tuesday morning. “For transportation and travel, it makes a lot of sense. Educationally, there would be less time out of class, especially with the trend of schools going to later start times. But a lot of it has to do with playoffs. The question I get the most from parents is, ‘Why are we playing a school in playoffs that we didn’t play in the regular season?’ “

The Maine Principals’ Association examines enrollment figures every two years to help divide its member schools into what are hoped to be competitively-matched classifications, specific for each sport. That process is under way and likely to be settled by April, according to South Portland Athletic Director Todd Livingston, a member of the MPA classification committee who also serves as vice president of the SMAA.

“(Falmouth is) currently in (Class) A in most sports,” Livingston said, “so from their perspective, I could see why they would want to compete in the regular season with SMAA schools.”

Livingston is also a South Portland High graduate, Class of 1989.

“When I went to school, we were above 1,200 (enrollment),” he said. “We’re in the mid 800s now. That’s a trend statewide. Enrollments, generally speaking, are down.”

Indeed, over the past decade, only three SMAA schools have seen a rise in enrollment. Thornton Academy, a public-private institution that provides housing for tuition-paying boarding students who come from as far away as Asia, is up 16.2 percent from 2006. In Maine, only Lewiston High reported more than Thornton’s 1,412 students (as of last spring), and then only by 16 students.

The other two SMAA schools on the upswing are Scarborough (2.8 percent growth to 1,021, but down slightly in each of the previous three biennial reports) and Windham (up 6.8 percent to 1,004 but also down from 2014 and 2012 figures).

“I think the majority of the state is getting smaller, and we’re not,” said Falmouth’s Coffey. “We’re at 706 kids right now and we’re going to be right about 700 or above for the next several years. We have all the enrollment projections.”

Falmouth’s high school population grew 11.9 percent from 2006 to 2016. Over that same period, Kennebunk shrunk by 20.8 percent but the decline seems to have leveled off just below 700. A renovation and building project that will add a new theater and cafeteria is expected to attract more families with school-age children, said Schartzman, now in his fourth year at Kennebunk.

He joined the school just as it was making the transition from SMAA to WMC, whose members compete mostly in Class B and C tournaments.

“When we switched (in 2013), we felt like we were going to be a B school,” he said. Instead, the MPA classified Kennebunk in A for soccer and baseball along with swimming, cross country and track. “I was waiting for the next classification cycle,” Schwartzman said, “but we pretty much stayed A in every sport but track and swimming.”

All 16 current members of the SMAA compete in Class A for the majority of sports. Falmouth and Kennebunk compete in Class B in football and are likely to remain in that classification.

“I think it makes sense,” said third-year Portland High Athletic Director Rob O’Leary, who succeeded Coffey as athletic director at Winthrop High in Massachusetts before both ventured to Maine. “Everybody weighs it a little differently. For me, travel and expenses, that’s what I look at. We’ll discuss it and vote appropriately.”

Although new to Falmouth, Coffey is well aware of his school’s historic rivalries with WMC schools such as Greely, Yarmouth and Cape Elizabeth. He said he hopes to continue conference crossover games with those rivals in as many sports as is feasible.

“That was a thought and concern,” he said. “We’re still going to be able to play Cape in lacrosse, which is a big one. Basketball and lacrosse, they still do those crossovers. We’ll put those (rival schools) as our top choices.”

Any conference changes would take effect in the fall. Spring schedules are largely in place.

Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or

Gjordan@pressherald.com

Twitter: GlennJordanPPH

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