It's a new opportunity for the Thunderbolts.

Manual High School is reopening today with 180 freshmen after closing for a year because of declining enrollment and poor performance.

The new freshman class will be entering freshly painted and restored classrooms. All of the teachers are new to the school.

As part of the school's face-lift, the students are required to wear school uniforms.

In 2006, the high school grabbed national attention when the Denver Public Schools board voted to shut down the mostly minority school for a year. Once the pride of the black community, the school's reputation had diminished because of gang violence and low test scores.

Most of the 558 students displaced by the closing of the high school enrolled at other DPS schools, with the vast majority choosing South High School.

The $1 million makeover included a new set of teachers, smaller classrooms and a physical renovation of the school.

In March, Rob Stein, a Manual graduate, was picked to run the school.

Earlier this month, more than 600 volunteers, including former and current Thunderbolts and people from around Colorado and the world worked to paint and restore the school.

Manual High, on the corner of East 28th Avenue and Franklin Street, opened in 1894.