Biddeford High will appeal a Maine Principals’ Association decision to keep the team in Class A football the next two years.

Biddeford petitioned to drop to Class B next season but was turned down in a meeting of the MPA’s Interscholastic-Management Committee in November.

Dick Durost, the MPA executive director, on Tuesday confirmed the appeal will be on the agenda at the Jan. 30 meeting of the Management Committee.

The Tigers finished with a 4-6 record last season. They made the playoffs, beating South Portland 34-20 in the Western Class A quarterfinals before losing to Bonny Eagle 21-8 in a semifinal.

“The No. 1 concern is for the safety of our student athletes,” said Biddeford superintendent Jeremy Ray. “Our enrollment continues to decline. There’s a lot of concern about that.”

Every two years the MPA goes through a reclassification process by setting new enrollment figures for all sports and adjusting schools. The MPA set a figure of at least 840 students for Class A football for the next two seasons. For Class B, it will be 586 to 839 students. Ray said Biddeford’s enrollment will likely be 775 this fall, possibly lower.

In the prior reclassification, the Tigers applied up to play Class A football. When a team applies up, that commitment is for four years, not two.

“In another two years we wouldn’t be in Class A, so why would we want to do it for four years?” Ray said.

“All we are asking is for the committee to look at some of the recent recommendations the MPA has made. They always have the best interests of the students in mind. We want to have the best interests of Biddeford students.”

Biddeford was a Class A power for parts of four decades, winning nine state titles, the most of any school. But it hasn’t won a state title since 1994 and has struggled the past few years.

Ray said the public sentiment in Biddeford has changed about moving to Class B.

“We’ve had public forums and gone before the school committee twice,” he said.