Frenchboro’s small school had a vacancy this January. Veteran teacher Lorna Stuart accepted a job off-island and planned to leave as soon as a substitute was found.

Finding a mid-year replacement for an island school is often not easy, but in this case a lack of applications wasn’t the problem. School superintendent Rob Liebow says he receives a slew of inquiries when he posts an island teaching vacancy on the Web. Educators are drawn to the job because of the exotic locale, the minuscule class size and the experience of teaching in a multi-grade one-room schoolhouse.

“It’s probably quite a résumé-builder,” Liebow said.

But getting qualified applicants out to Frenchboro for an interview is a different story, says school board member Becky Lenfestey.

The interview process for a Frenchboro teaching post is more involved than for a mainland school. Applicants must come out on the daily ferry and stay overnight. A teacher hiring takes on the feel of a community event. Children and parents sit in on interviews and each candidate is usually treated to an island-wide luncheon.

“You have to look at their education and how’d they fit in here,” Lenfestey said.

The reason for the high community participation, Lenfestey says, is that the position is so much more than just teaching; it’s closer to being the island’s governor. Teachers are highly respected on Frenchboro and the school is the place for concerts, parties and other community events. Teachers are expected to be hands-on in all important aspects of community life.

In addition to the pressure of such a prominent community role, teachers often wrestle with the isolation of first-time island living. During the school year, the ferry runs on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, one-way. Until recently, it was impossible for teachers to get off-island without missing school.

“It’s a hard position to be in,” Lenfestey said.

The Island Institute’s education outreach coordinator Ruth Kermish-Allen says Frenchboro’s teacher-retention rate is not uncommon among the 14 island schools in Maine.

“It is certainly difficult to keep high-quality teachers on an island,” she said.

Island communities tend to go through waves of high teacher turnover, Kermish-Allen said. She believes that teacher-retention rates often correspond to the level of support communities provide.

Lenfestey agrees. She first came out to Frenchboro in a lobster boat to teach for the 1999-2000 school year; the crossing was her first time on the ocean. She says she still remembers the overwhelming feelings of jumping into island life.

In recent years, the Frenchboro school board has made it a priority to help teachers transition into island living. They voted to schedule in a Wednesday off every holiday-less month to allow teachers access to the mainland during the school year. The scheduling change might have been a big factor in extending Lorna Stuart’s stay for four-plus years.

By all accounts, Stuart’s tenure has been a success. She’s been credited with bringing about a host of positive changes to the school, including establishing a regular curriculum, landing grants to bring technology and visiting artists to the classroom, and beginning the conversion of the school’s basement into a science laboratory.

“She was very dedicated,” Lenfestey said of Stuart.

When Lenfestey received notice that Stuart was resigning, she didn’t panic. She knew there was another person on the island qualified to take the reigns. Erica Davis, who moved onto the island this past fall, is a veteran teacher with multi-grade classroom experience. She has two daughters at the school and she’s subbed there five times this past year.

“I looked at it as we had two certified teachers on the island,” Lenfestey said.

It took a couple of weeks to convince Davis to apply for the job, but once she did she was a shoe-in.

When interviewed for this story, Davis was at the schoolhouse preparing for her first day.

“I think it will be fun,” she said.

She and her husband moved out to an ancestral home on the island to try island living for a year. A long-term sub position at the tiny Frenchboro school may be a great fit. She already knows all her pupils’ families and she’s impressed with what Stuart has done with the school.

“I worked in big Massachusetts schools and never had access to technology like this,” she said.

Davis thinks her biggest challenge will be teaching in the same classroom as her daughter for the first time. She’s worried the distinction between mom and teacher will not be clear enough for her daughter.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions at home,” she said.