At the close of each school year on the islands, people come to expect want ads seeking new teachers. High staff turnover is a fact of life in K-12 public education, but more so on the islands. And that turnover has a higher impact than on the mainland, because in some island schools, one teacher can be the entire staff.

When Josh Holloway began teaching at the Cliff Island School in 2007, he quickly picked up the vibe that some islanders were nervous his tenure would last just one year. After all, he was already a commuter, traveling back and forth from Great Diamond, where he and his wife, Heidi, had settled to give birth to their first baby. And before moving to Great Diamond, the two were dedicated globetrotters who focused on warmer climates.

But last year, the inter-island commute ended when the couple rented a home on Cliff Island. Josh especially thinks Cliff Island is a great place for his son, Kai, to spend his early years.

“It almost feels like we’d be selfish to leave at this point,” he said. Josh and Heidi have taught at a number of warmer locations. The two met as education specialists in the Hawaii public school system. When Heidi learned that Josh had bought a small sailboat to sail around the Hawaiian Islands, she suggested instead a South Pacific odyssey.

“She was up for plenty. My wife’s pretty adventurous,” Josh said.

“I really had no idea what we were getting into,” Heidi added.

The voyage was planned for two years, but stretched to three. Days were filled with fishing, exploring and avoiding cyclones. The couple also found ample opportunities to volunteer as teachers at tiny island schools. No classroom experience was the same. In Kiribati, for example, class was held in an abandoned U.S. military hanger.

Their Pacific odyssey only ended when they discovered Heidi was pregnant. The couple sold their sailboat and headed back for Hawaii, but it was a family connection that eventually drew them to Maine’s islands.

“Our moms came out to Maui to visit us and did some gentle persuasion, as well,” Josh said.

They moved to Great Diamond to be with Heidi’s mother. It was fortuitous. In the Holloways, the nearby Cliff Island School has received a pair of experienced educators who knew how to teach in unconventional classroom settings. It’s a skill that’s needed on the island; the school has a handful of students from first grade to fifth grade. Josh loves the assignment.

“It’s like a teacher’s dream,” he said. “To me, it’s like what home schooling would be. The kids are your kids.”

Josh provides the main instruction for the school, while Heidi teaches part-time as an art teacher and educational technician. Juggling the curriculum for the school’s diverse learners isn’t as hard as it sounds, Josh says. He credits the Maine Learning Results for helping lay out what students should learn each year. And he only has to create completely separate curriculum for math. In reading instruction, he often pairs the older students with the younger ones, with great results.

“The older ones have such a sense of responsibility,” Josh said. “It blows my mind to see fourth- and fifth-graders in this setting.”

Josh also is impressed with all the help he’s received from the small community of some 50 year-round residents. The islander who sees to the school’s upkeep comes from a long line of school caretakers, dating back to the school’s opening in 1880.

“It’s impressive every time I talk to him about it,” he said.

Few island teachers stay forever, but Josh and Heidi say that they have put down some roots on Cliff Island.

“The island will always be a part of our lives now,” Heidi said. “Kai is such a little Maine baby.”

But the couple still yearns for warmer locales. They confess they’ve never gotten used to having to wear so many clothes. In many of his former teaching positions, Josh needed only a few shirts and a pair of shorts to complete his teaching wardrobe. “…we do enjoy it here, the only thing is the cold.

The couple does not know where they will in the years to come, but they have no plans to move in the near future. Cliff Island residents who want to keep the teaching couple around for years to come might want to keep them warm, even if only with island hospitality.

Craig Idlebrook is a freelance writer who lives in Ellsworth.