For students, lessons in Recovery

In a stuffy basement classroom in Beverly, three 16-year-old girls sweep the worn linoleum floor and wash windows. The volunteers could be doing other things on this hot summer day but see this classroom as the most important room in their lives.

Next month, the three will be part of the first class of the Northshore Recovery High School, created for teens who have struggled with drugs and alcohol.

The state-subsidized school -- one of three that will open in Massachusetts this fall -- will be located at 502 Cabot St., and will be the first of its kind on the North Shore. Overseen by the Northshore Education Consortium, the school has accepted 10 students, and hopes to grow to 40 by the end of the school year. To enroll, students must be sober upon admission and agree to random drug testing. Students must also pledge to not take drugs, and commit to attending at least two 12-step meetings a week.

``I want these students to stay safe, and I want them to get high-quality academics, and I want them to go to college," said Michelle Lipinski, the school's director.

Lipinski, who ran an alternative high school in Salem for seven years, believes that bringing together teens who have had substance abuse problems will build trust, and create a community where kids can regain their confidence and succeed.

``I think that this is the best idea," said Lipinski. ``Coming out of these residential programs, they have such a strength, and they have such a resiliency. Mostly what I want right now are students who are committed enough to make change, and want to be leaders."

Robert Gass, executive director of the Northshore Education Consortium, believes that the school will serve as a model for future recovery schools in the state. ``I think our ability to demonstrate how important it is will be a crucial factor in the growth of this whole movement in New England," said Gass.

Lipinski said students who relapse will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Some could face expulsion.

To date, students from Beverly, Peabody, Salem, Lynn, Marblehead, Gloucester, Ipswich, and Lexington have enrolled in the program, which will run daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition to classes in math, science, history, and English, the students will also spend one hour a day in group therapy. Electives in art, drama, music, and video will also be offered.

Also, unless students have an after-school job, or 12-step meeting, they will remain at the school from 3 to 6 p.m. to do homework, or attend extra classes.

In an adjoining classroom, Sabrinna Clark is writing an essay so Lipinski can assess her writing skills. Clark is 16, and lived in Quincy, Brockton, Malden, Jamaica Plain, Woburn, and Winter Haven, Fla., before coming to Beverly last year. She has not attended school regularly since she was 8 years old, and hasn't been in a classroom in two years.

In her essay, Clark writes about her trepidation at returning to school: ``I was the most nervous I'd been in a very long time. It's that kind of nervous you get when you know your life is going to change forever; almost as if the world, your world, could quite possibly end."

Clark, who says she has been sober for more than a year, shuffled between her mother and father and grandparents' apartments most of her life, and now lives in state-subsidized housing. After moving to Florida two years ago, Clark says, she began taking OxyContin and methamphetamines daily. To get the drugs, she says she stole and beat people for money.

``Drugs was a life for me, but now I realize, you know, it's not a life. It's a hell," says Clark, who surprises Lipinski when she correctly answers several square-root equations.

``She's going to be a strong geometry and algebra person," says Lipinski.

Clark says the key to the school's success will be measured by its lack of drugs. ``I want this school to be good, not just for me, but for people who have lived the life similar to the one I have," she says.

In another classroom, Dena Bowers pushes a broom with a smile. A year ago, she was in a detox center, trying to kick a $300 -a-day OxyContin habit. Like Clark, Bowers, who is 16, and has blond hair and blue eyes, also hasn't been in a school in two years.

``I was always chasing the high to see if I could get higher, and I just felt numb after a while," says Bowers, who lives in Peabody with her grandparents. ``And after a while you just needed to do it to almost feel normal because I felt empty if I was completely clean, with nothing in my system. I felt like I just hated myself. I couldn't look in the mirror. I couldn't stand anything about myself for a while. And drugs just kind of took that away from me because I didn't care."

Bowers, who says she's been sober for 10 months, was the first student accepted in the program, and has been coming to the school twice a week since June to paint and clean. She's also reading works by Maya Angelou and Harper Lee.

Bowers says she's no longer in contact with the friends she did drugs with, and believes her new friends at the school will provide a safety net. ``It gives you a feeling that you fit in, because these people are like you," she says. ``No matter what drugs they did, or drank, or whatever, it's still the same -- it's addiction that we all struggle with."

For more information about the Northshore Recovery High School visit www.nsedu.org.

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at rosenberg@globe.com.