Shining moments

Zachary Ehlert sipped a soda, smiled for a photograph, and raised his hands in jubilation as he celebrated his high school prom aboard a cruise in Salem Harbor.

Ehlert, 19, wore a tuxedo and flashed a quick smile. This was a night he would not spend shooting heroin, getting into a fight, or going to sleep in a jail cell. This would be a night he would celebrate sober. And all 34 students on the boat were sober, too.

As the vessel sailed out of the harbor, several parents waved to their children. The group of mothers and fathers stood in silence as the boat cruised away. On this night, the years of frustration at having a child hooked on drugs were put aside. This was a night of hope.

A week later, Ehlert marked another milestone that he couldn't have imagined. Along with six other teens, on Wednesday he became part of the first graduating class of the Northshore Recovery High School in Beverly.

"If it wasn't for this school I wouldn't have gotten a diploma," said Ehlert, who was hooked on heroin for four years, and spent more than two years in jail for an armed robbery he committed in Marblehead.

Students, educators, and parents are giving high marks to the Beverly school, one of the three public recovery high schools that was created and funded last year by the state Legislature. With individual budgets of $2.75 million for five years, recovery schools in Beverly, Boston, and Springfield are growing, said Greg Hughes, who helps oversee the three programs as the executive director of the Governor's Council on Substance Abuse. In Boston, six of the 20 students will receive diplomas, and in Springfield, two of the 28 will graduate.

Ehlert's transformation from a self-described "stone-cold drug fiend" to a focused student grew out of self-discipline, he said.

"A lot of people come up with all of these excuses, like, 'Oh, I was stressed out, I was sad.'

"I loved getting high, it was fun," said Ehlert, who began smoking marijuana and stealing to buy drugs when he was 11. That was also when he took his first hit of crack cocaine, and he wanted more. By age 14, he was shooting heroin and stealing cars. At 16, he threatened five teenagers with a knife, stole $38, and was arrested and sent to jail.

While incarcerated, he took classes and passed the MCAS exams, and dreamed about getting a high school diploma. After he was released last year, he relapsed, and went back to heroin. In February, after a month of being sober, he wanted to go back to school but knew he couldn't survive at a traditional high school where drugs are available. That's when he enrolled at the recovery school. And now, after graduating, he's working in a Marblehead restaurant and looking for a job as a welder.

"It's all basically on you, but I think this school is good because it provides an environment where I'm with people who are doing similar things. I'm not odd man out trying to get sober. They just really care about me. They didn't want me to walk out of here and put a needle in my arm," he said.

To enroll in the Beverly school -- run by the Northshore Education Consortium -- students must be drug and alcohol free for 30 days, and must agree to random drug tests several times a month. In addition, students are required to attend three recovery activities each week, such as Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Relapses are treated on a case-by-case basis. Since September, the Beverly school has grown from 12 to 38 students, and none have been expelled because of drug abuse.

According to school officials, the students straddle all socioeconomic lines, coming from upper-middle-class families and foster homes. They come from 19 communities, and while most live on the North Shore, some travel to Beverly from as far away as Shrewsbury, Lexington, and Needham.

Wanting to be there

The key to the program's success has been that the former substance abusers want to be there. "The average attendance rate at the schools is 90 percent," Hughes said.

In Beverly, a combination of honesty, trust, support from teachers and fellow students, and a no-tolerance attitude toward drugs and alcohol has pushed attendance to 97 percent, said Michelle Lipinski, the school's director.

"The only way a student is going to make it here is if they're completely honest," said Lipinski, who started the school last summer in the basement of the former Memorial Middle School.

With a staff of nine and barely three dozen students, not much happens that everyone doesn't know about almost immediately. While 90 percent of the curriculum is based on the state's educational framework -- math, science, English, and history -- the school begins and ends each day with a group meeting, attended by all students and faculty. At the gathering, Lipinski often reminds students about AA meetings.

She can tell if a student is struggling. Afterward, she'll talk to the student in the hallway. Sometimes the conversation will revolve around the desire to use drugs. Talking helps, said Lipinski.

"We can talk about what's going on; spend a few minutes just to get back on track, and I send them back to class," said Jim Howland, the school's adjustment counselor. Sometimes students need to go home, and the school is accommodating. That happened with Ehlert, who has battled anger issues. If he was having a bad day, on occasion he walked from the school to his home in Marblehead.

"After a three-hour walk, I'm OK," he said.

The write stuff

Steve Olivier begins his mornings around 6 at his home in Shrewsbury, 60 miles from Beverly. His father, Bill, drives him to the school, a 75-minute trip, before returning to Marlborough, where he works as a social worker. In the afternoon, he's picked up by his mother.

"This program saved my son's life," said Karen Olivier, who was stunned when Steve was arrested in January for cocaine and marijuana possession. Steve has been a good student, on track for college. She thought her son was depressed, but did not realize he was using drugs.

Steve Olivier said he had been snorting cocaine regularly for two years, building up a $100-a-day habit. "I'd steal money from friends and family," he said. After his arrest, he quit cocaine, and wanted to go back to school.

His parents insisted they drive him to the recovery school, and now the daily urge to get high is waning, he said. He was among the six graduates and plans to attend Anna Maria College in Paxton in the fall. Other graduates will attend Salem State College, Wheelock College, and North Shore Community College. Olivier credits the school's staff with boosting his confidence and self-esteem.

At the graduation ceremony, Olivier played guitar while junior Kyle Buxton, 17, of Revere, spoke the lyrics:

"What are these feelings and how do I deal?
I guess that's what living really is
I don't have to hide anymore
It's a weird feeling, though I'm relieved"

Song lyrics like Olivier's don't surprise Michaela Gile, the school's English teacher. "They're excellent writers, excellent poets, excellent thinkers," said Gile, who had the students read books by Elie Wiesel, Franz Kafka, and Stephen King.

After the students read "The Glass Castle," a book on alcoholism by Jeannette Walls, they wrote poetry to better understand the book and their feelings. Later in the year, they read their poems to Walls while she was in Boston.

Like the other teachers, Gile is accessible to students after school. She also gets up early to drive to Lynn to pick up one of the students, Mariah Long. A lot of the time, Gile brings the coffee, too.

"She had trouble coming to school," said Gile.

Long, who is 16, has blond hair, blue eyes, and several body piercings. She has not had a drink in almost a year. Last year, school was an afterthought and she'd drink a bottle of wine every day.

These days, she's not afraid to feel her emotions, and wants to become a dancer. She also has good friends from the school.

"You talk to kids here about anything. They don't judge you," she said. "Most feel the same way you do. It's just a huge support system."

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