Maine Island a School of Hard Knocks

FRENCHBORO, Me. — For the sixth time in nearly as many years, this community has an opening for a teacher in its 12-student, one-room school. But applicants beware--this is an island 10 miles out in the Atlantic.

Qualifications include a love of solitude and the ability to survive harsh winters and live without stores, movie theaters and restaurants.

Melody Upham, who arrived from Michigan two years ago with her husband, Tim, a teacher’s aide, has worked out fine, school board members say. An earlier teacher who didn’t do as well was paid $1,000 to hasten his departure.

Upham, 36, has no regrets about the job but is stepping down this summer to spend more time with her new baby.

Life on the sparsely populated islands along the Maine coast seems most attractive in spring and summer, when applicants are interviewing for jobs.

And getting to the Mainland from Frenchboro means an eight-mile ferry ride--available only on Wednesdays and Thursdays, year-round--and that’s just to get to another island that has a bridge to Isle Au Haut, each with a year-round population of about 50, are tightly knit communities where outsiders may have trouble fitting in. If you irritate one parent, that’s probably 25% or 30% of all the school parents. And that parent may well be the brother or cousin of an additional 50%.

There are challenges inside the classroom too.

Upham, who gets help in the afternoons from her husband, says older children don’t do as well in the intimate setting as younger ones. “They’re dying to get off the island,” she said.