MONROE, Conn. — Banners hung from the rafters in the Masuk High School gym celebrate its All-State Athletes and State Title winning teams, but now there’s no more room. Athletic Director Brian Hourigan told the Board of Education his school is three years behind and he would need seven more banners to add new names and update the older banners.
Upstairs, once old plaques inside trophy cases run out of room for new names, administrators try to match the plaques with new ones. Principal Steve Swensen said this could be a challenge, especially when companies that made the original plaques are no longer in business.
During Masuk’s budget presentation before the school board on Jan. 5, Swensen and Hourigan asked for $8,335 to transition to a digital recognition platform. Though it would be in the Athletic Department’s budget, Hourigan said it could also be used to highlight students’ academic achievements, as well as in extracurricular activities such as music and drama.
“It can display everything about what our students do,” Hourigan said. “Fans can go up to it. They can interact with it. They can look at our All State athletes. They can look at our team records.”
Hourigan said fans could also scan a QR code to visit the website, whether they are in the stands, at home or across the country — wherever alumni are.
“It does video. It’s a really impressive system,” Hourigan said of digital recognition platforms. “We thought it would bring us to the next age of recognition.”
“It doesn’t mean Brian is going to yank all the banners from the gym now,” Swensen said, “but there are a lot of banners that he has that are not up right now.”
The digital system is used by a lot of colleges, Trumbull High School is currently installing it and if Masuk does, it will be one of the first schools in Connecticut to have it, according to Swensen.
Swensen said he believes Masuk can get two touchscreens, one for academics and the other for sports. The $8,335 covers the price for both screens, as well as associated services. The initial purchase includes the hardware.
One 70-inch screen would be placed in the entryway of the gym with about a 55-inch screen in the main lobby, according to Swensen.
“That’s our big ask,” Hourigan said of the athletic budget. “I think it will modernize the gym. It will celebrate our athletes, more so than just All State athletes. That’s all we celebrate right now. There’s so much more our athletes do, whether it’s Academic All State, team records and championship teams.”
He said the technology has video and can even scan yearbooks, so Masuk could digitized every year if it wants to.
Masuk’s academic budget
As part of its review of Superintendent Joseph Kobza’s $78.55 million spending plan for fiscal year 2026-27, the Board of Education heard presentations on Jan. 5 from principals of Monroe, Stepney and Fawn Hollow elementary schools, Jockey Hollow Middle School and Masuk, which included its academic and Athletic Department budgets.
Workshops covering special education, curriculum and professional development were held on Jan. 8, and on IT, facilities and capital projects last Monday.
On Jan. 5, Swensen presented Masuk’s controllable budget lines, which would increase by $8,494 or 2.57 percent in the 2026-27 budget proposal.
Three areas he highlighted were:
- Student achievement: intervention program, Homework Club three times a week $11,799.
- High quality instruction: returning some instructional lines from fiscal year 2025, $5,590
- Facilities and operations: dome camera for computer classroom, safety and security, $4,500.
“I’m only asking for about $8,500 more than last year, but if you look at the impact of the things I’m asking for its $23,000,” Swensen said. “Kudos to the instructional leaders for trimming some things. I also appreciate it as a Monroe taxpayer that they came in very frugal.”
Swensen said the computer lab has tens out of thousands, if not $100,000, worth of equipment, including equipment for robotics.
“There’s blind spots. A dome camera will cover the room,” he said. “It’s a room where a dome camera is needed. It’s $4,500. That would make me sleep a lot better at night, and we can take the cameras in there and use them somewhere else in the building.”
Swensen said his school’s literacy interventionist was not filled last year and they ended up cutting it. He requested the position again, but it’s not in the current budget proposal.
“We do need to bolster our MTSS,” he said of the multi-tiered system of supports. “We will also provide support for a math interventionist and some science intervention for our regular ed kids to spend additional time with teachers.”
Masuk Athletics
Masuk is known for its thriving sports program. It has 833 unique athletes (56 percent of the student body), over 200 multisport athletes, 30 varsity sports, 46 teams, three seasons of Unified Sports, 22 student athletes playing in college (eight in Division 1), and two reigning State Champions: the 2025 softball and girls soccer teams.
“We have over 850 participations a year in athletics and we’re really, really proud of that,” Hourigan said, “and even sometimes what you see is greater academic outcomes, because of the participation in sports.”
He said the goal of his budget proposal is to maintain the high quality of the Athletic Department to support Masuk’s student athletes. It is 1.82 percent or $8,457 more than the current budget.
“The asks are over $26,000, but when I looked over the budget I found we can save in places, including $17,247 in savings in things like equipment rentals and reconditioning,” Hourigan told the board. “Overall, I think we’re just more efficient as a department without sacrificing really anything.”
The uniform replacement cycle is:
- Fiscal year 2027: indoor track, boys cross country and football.
- Fiscal year 2028: soccer, tennis, field hockey and girls golf.
- Fiscal year 2029: basketball, girls lax, girls cross country and girls volleyball.
Hourigan is asking for a 22.42 percent increase ($6,485) to hire more crowd control and event workers and increase workers’ rates.
“It takes a lot of people to run these events,” he said. “Right now, we have five people working a basketball game and without them doing their work, the games don’t go off. It comes down to safety.”
“We’re asking to increase the stipend, or pay of each worker, just a little bit, because it’s getting a little harder to get people and teachers to these games to work them,” Hourigan added.
A big part of the increase is to provide more security at football games, which are attended by large crowds, including students, Hourigan said.
He is also seeking at 5.55 percent increase ($9,863) for transportation, which includes a three percent hike for All-Star and the cost of hiring additional charters when All-Star doesn’t have drivers to take teams to away games.
When All-Star doesn’t come through, Masuk uses Dattco, then B and B Transportation and Carriage Limousine Service, according to Hourigan.
He said All-Star has been much better this year, but added the bus company recently lost two drivers.
“The people at All-Star are doing all they can,” Hourigan said. “The people we work with are fantastic. If they don’t have the drivers, they don’t have the drivers.”
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