On Wednesday, the same day Democratic front runner Barack Obama was appearing in Thornton, speaking about fixing the No Child Left Behind legislation – and about the same time President Bush was congratulating 1,000 or so graduates of the Air Force Academy to the south – Rob Stein was talking about wrapping up his first year as principal of Manual High School in Denver.

This 290,000-square-foot bastion, which has hunkered over the skyline just northwest of City Park since before its first graduation in 1896, has surely changed. Over time, the problems associated with students from a low-income neighborhood eroded any claims on academic success. Things got so bad that Denver Public Schools closed it for the 2006-2007 school year.

Enter Stein, a 48-year-old described as intensely energetic to the point of being nonstop, a walker-and-talker. He sounded cautiously upbeat about his alma mater.

“We outperformed expectations, certainly for Manual High School,” he said, though quickly adding that he and the Denver Public Schools staff will have to spend time this summer analyzing CSAP scores, attendance rates and other indicators of performances by 150 or so minority ninth graders in the largely low-income class of the reborn Manual.

Through the third quarter ending in March, for example, attendance was at 89 percent, a good 10 percent above the DPS high school average. Final tallies aren’t out yet, but Stein doubts much of a change in a final number – though he says it can improve. Further, only a small portion of the original 168 students enrolled last fall dropped out or left during the school year – and all but one, a runaway, are accounted for, having either moved or gone to other programs.

Despite the odds, Stein, a Harvard PhD, knew what he was getting into. After all, this is a highly-scrutinized job – profiled in a national periodical and last year in 5280 magazine – where the headline declared this pedigreed veteran educator was not “Superman.” However, it seemed like the article argued that being a superhero – maybe the Incredible Education Hulk -- was what the new Manual would need to fix a chronically underachieving school. But maybe that was the secret identity of Stein, who came from Denver’s elite Graland prep, a decidedly different world, where he reportedly received a $150,000 annual salary.

According to a DPS press release, a 10-member community committee interviewed finalists for his job and made recommendations to Superintendent Michael Bennet and Chief Academic Officer Jaime Aquino. "Rob has a proven track record of leading successful school reform," Bennet said. "We tapped one of the state's best school leaders to direct Manual into a new era of excellence.”

They hoped to capture the old Manual Thunderbolt from the country day school pastures. Stein concedes it is hard to compare the two institutions, because, as he noted, at Graland he was not focused on drop-out rates and lost classes. Still, there are similarities: “I’m a school principal, working to help the staff” create academic excellence.

Next fall, he expects to be back, welcoming some 300 or so students to what he laughingly calls “Manual 2.0. We’ll look at what strategies worked, and what we can do better.” The program won’t be changed so much as “tweaked,” he said. “We have a baseline.”

Seems as if Stein believes the academic thunder will return to Manual and its Thunderdome.