WATERVILLE — The Waterville Board of Education on Monday will consider voting to authorize 8-man football for Waterville Senior High School.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the Mid-Day Cafe at Mid-Maine Technical Center on Brooklyn Avenue.

At the meeting, the board also will interview Patricia Helm for an open Ward 1 seat vacated by Sara Sylvester, who resigned last month because she moved out of the ward. Sylvester was chairwoman of the board, a position Joan Phillips-Sandy now holds.

Eight-man football is played with eight instead of 11 offensive and defensive players on each side. It is typically played by high schools that have smaller student enrollment. The practice is gaining popularity around the country.

The Maine Principals’ Association in April 2019 approved 8-man football at its general membership meeting. It was played in 18 states in 2017 but was not sponsored by the MPA until last year. Waterville and Mt. View in Thorndike are among a group of schools looking to make the move to 8-man football next fall. Others are Dirigo, Mt. Desert Island, Spruce Mountain and Camden Hills. Last fall, 10 teams took part in the inaugural season of 8-man football, divided into two divisions based on school size.

In other matters Monday, the board will consider board committee assignments for this year, hear the finance director’s report and consider proposed 2020-21 budgets for adult education, technology, transportation and Albert S. Hall School.