Manual High School officially reopened Monday when 157 ninth-graders and their teachers walked into the school together, kicking off the school's first community meeting.

"It was nice symbolism," Principal Rob Stein said.

The community meetings, which will begin the school day three times a week, are part of the reformed Manual under Stein and his teachers, all new to the school.

Manual, which first opened in 1894 at East 28th Avenue and Franklin Street, was closed for a year because of poor student achievement and declining enrollment.

It is reopening with ninth-graders only and will add a grade a year until it also serves grades 10, 11 and 12.

"I think it went really well," Stein, a 1978 Manual graduate, said of the school's first day.

In addition to community meetings, pieces of the reform include a dress code that is "business casual," meaning no shorts or jeans.

Students will be asked to stay after school from 3:30 to 5 p.m. if they don't finish their assignments. Sports practices won't start until 5 p.m.

And the school's first freshman class is limited to 180 students.

In addition to the 157 students in attendance Monday, 10 others are receiving special education services, Stein said. Staff members contacted the 12 to 13 students who were absent and found some confusion over the school start date.

Other first-day glitches included a shoving match among three boys at lunch, captured by local media during the only time cameras were allowed at the school.

Stein said it was broken up quickly by the school's staff and that the three students were disciplined "seriously," although he declined to say what that meant.

"What we planned went off pretty well," he said.

"Kids seemed to calm down as the day went on and got along well together."

Much of the day was spent on assessments and the usual first-day tasks, such as a school tour and finding lockers.

But the focus was on "community building," Stein said, including putting students together with the teachers who will serve as their advisers throughout the year.

One position is still vacant - that of a full-time special education teacher.

And there is a "medium-sized list of fixes" to be made, he said.

That includes getting the computerized attendance system up and running and finding a way to distinguish among the 200 identical backpacks donated to students.

Troubled times at Manual High

• Feb. 9, 2006: Superintendent Michael Bennett declares the five-year experiment that turned Manual into three smaller academies a failure. He proposed returning to one unified school.

• Feb. 16, 2006: Denver School Board announces that it will close the three-schools-in-one Manual for one year and reopen in August 2007. The move touches off outrage from stunned students and community members.

• March 5, 2007: Former Graland County Day School Principal (and Manual alum) Robert Stein named Manual's new principal.

• Aug. 20, 2007: Manual reopens

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245

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