by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers

A Burnsville site has been chosen for the third campus of Sobriety High School, a program serving students recovering from addiction.

The school will open next fall in rented space at 12156 Nicollet Ave. S., about a mile from Burnsville High School. It will be the third Sobriety High campus in the Twin Cities.

Sobriety High is a post-treatment alternative to students' home high schools, where the temptation to use drugs and alcohol persists and the risk of relapse is high.

Selection of a Burnsville site follows two years of efforts to bring Sobriety High to the south metro area. There are also campuses in Edina and Maplewood.

Under a contract finalized last August, all three schools will be chartered by Rosemount-based Intermediate School District 917, which provides specialized services to most school districts in Dakota County.

"We saw that we certainly weren't meeting the need at all that we had here in Dakota County,î said Vicki Roy, a member of the 917 and Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school boards. "This became a real high priority for us.î

District 917 Superintendent Bill Larson has wanted to bring a recovery high school to the area since taking the job more than three years ago. He's a retired administrator in the St. Paul School District, which has a recovery program called Gateway.

"I could see that that was a missing element in the county out here,î Larson said.

Sobriety High sought charter-school status to help stabilize its funding, said Lyle Taipale, the program's chief academic officer. The first Sobriety High began under another name with four students and a single teacher in St. Louis Park.

Until it was chartered, Sobriety High was a "contracted alternativeî school that received tuition from districts that had students attending. Under the charter contract, per-pupil funds will flow directly to the school.

"Sobriety High would like to be able to have a program in any community that wants one,î said Taipale, a former St. Paul teacher who helped start the Gateway program and a recovery program in the Mounds View School District.

At least a few Dakota County students already attend Sobriety High in Edina or Maplewood, Larson said.
ëNot a
treatment center'

Sobriety High is for students in grades nine through 12 who've completed the primary phase of a treatment program. They must sign a sobriety contract and can be expelled for repeated relapses.

"The recovery part of the program is outside the school,î Taipale said. "One of our mottos is, ëI'm here because I'm sober, I'm not sober because I'm here.' Students have a recovery program in the community. They've got a 12-step program or something like that. Some are in aftercare at a treatment center, so they have sponsors outside the program. We're supportive of recovery, but we're not a treatment center.î

Taipale said Hazelden Foundation statistics show that 90 percent of students who return to their home schools after treatment relapse within three months. At Sobriety High -- one of about a dozen recovery high school programs in Minnesota -- 70 percent of students remain sober the first year, he said.

The Minnesota Student Survey suggests there are about 21,000 chemically dependent teens in Minnesota, and 3,400 have access to treatment, Taipale said. But there are only about 360 spots in recovery schools.

The Burnsville Sobriety High, like those in Edina and Maplewood, will have a 48-student capacity.

"We're barely scratching the surface of the need in the metro area,î Taipale said. "I don't think we'll have any difficulty with enough applicants.î

Sobriety High's student-to-teacher ratio is a low 10-to-1. Licensed instructors teach a daily curriculum of math, science, English and social studies. Students choose between physical education, health or an elective to round out the day. Each day includes an hour of peer counseling.

Attendance at the Edina and Maplewood sites was 93 percent last year, and 79 percent of students go on to college, Taipale said.

The Burnsville site was chosen partly for its proximity to parkland and open space students can use, and partly because of its one-mile distance from another high school where temptation persists, Taipale said. Sobriety High sites must be at least a mile from another high school.

The school will have its own board of directors. The school's director will be Mary Breitenbucher, a psychologist with many years in the recovery field.

John Gessner is at burnsville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.

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