What is the history behind Horizon High School?
One of us, Shelly Dutch, has been working with youth with AODA issues for over 20 years, and has seen the problems encountered by youth returning from treatment with some commitment to being alcohol and drug-free, only to return to their old schools and relapse. Recovery schools exist elsewhere – why not here? In March 2004, Shelly and several parents of youth in recovery began to talk about creating a recovery school here. We began to do research, contacting individuals involved in founding and running recovery chools elsewhere, as well as learning some of the negative lessons of two failed recovery schools (evaluations of those schools in AZ and IL were done by a UW-Madison faculty member, who is advising us). Two of our 6 founding members also are educators with over 44 combined years experience.
