The Hodgdon school board voted Monday night to change the school’s athletic status from Class C to D beginning with the 2003-04 school year.

Steve Fitzpatrick, the principal at Hodgdon High School, said the SAD 70 board voted unanimously to make the move.

“With our declining enrollment we decided that the best place for our athletes to compete is in Class D for the next two years,” Fitzpatrick said.

The principal said Hodgdon has been a Class C school since 1977. But that the school’s enrollment placed it on the “cusp” of Class D for “most of those years.”

Hodgdon’s current enrollment is 232 and Fitzpatrick said it is unlikely that it would increase in the coming years.

“Given the context of declining enrollment and looking at that picture, we projected it out for the next 10 years, we’re going to be [in Class D],” Fitzpatrick explained.

School officials met with athletes, coaches, the school superintendent and school board for discussions about making the move.

“There was some trepidation by our upperclass[men] athletes. They take great pride in competing at the upper level,” Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick said Hodgdon’s athletic schedules would change little and that natural rival Houlton, which recently moved down to Class C, would remain on the schedule.

“We have a great relationship, great rivalry. We would want to continue that regardless of whether we were in C or D. Most of our schedule has been a Class D schedule,” Fitzpatrick said.