MONROE, CT — Monroe Public Schools hired 13 new teachers, who participated in orientation days at Masuk High School last week. This included a scenic tour of the town that Thursday morning.
After Michael Crowley, the district’s director of instruction, went over the evaluation process in the media center, the new hires, who will be featured in individual profiles in The Sun, broke up into two groups outside, each boarding a van.
Jennifer Parsell, director of Student Support Services, drove one van, as Superintendent of Schools Joseph Kobza rode shotgun and narrated the tour, which included a visit to Wolfe Park and Great Hollow Lake, all part of a complex with ballfields, basketball courts, tennis and pickleball courts, hiking trails and a town pool, as well as a picnic area.
Though the van could not make it there so soon after the floods of Aug. 18, Kobza told the passengers about Webb Mountain Park and Webb Mountain Discovery Zone.
Crosswalks and pathways connected to the Housatonic Valley Rail-Trail were seen in several parts of town. Monroe’s trail is the last leg of the Pequonnock Valley Greenway, a system of bike trails stretching from Seaside Park in Bridgeport to Newtown.
Parsell drove the school van past historical houses and Whitney Farms Golf Course on Shelton Road (Route 110).
“This is our public golf course, Whitney Farms,” Kobza said. “A lot of our events for schools are held here, including the Ring Dance and banquets.”
To the left, the Monroe Volunteer Fire Department’s headquarters soon came into view. Kobza explained how Monroe has three volunteer fire companies, including Stepney and Stevenson with firehouses throughout the town.
“We have a ton of kids who are firemen and firewomen,” Parsell said. “A lot volunteer and some have gotten jobs as firefighters.”
As the van approached the roundabout, Kobza recalled how dangerous the intersection had been without it, leading to some horrific crashes, including a bad motorcycle accident.
Thursday’s tour went past the Monroe Volunteer Emergency Medical Service’s headquarters on Jockey Hollow Road, a number of historic homes and included several of the town’s churches.
Exiting the traffic circle, lawn signs advertised the St. Jude Parish Italian Festival. “You know the summer’s over when they have their Italian Festival,” Kobza said.
Two white steepled church buildings around the green by Monroe Town Hall are St. Peter’s Grace Episcopal and Monroe Congregational.
“St. Peter’s has an Apple Festival and Monroe Congregational has a Strawberry Festival,” Kobza said. “These are awesome events.”
The van later passed the driveway for the United Methodist Church on Cutlers Farm Road.
Among the notable places near the green on Monroe Turnpike are Harmony Grange, Edith Wheeler Memorial Library, Washington Lodge No. 19, which is a Masonic lodge, and the police station behind Town Hall.
“The Monroe green is on this side of town and the Stepney Green is on the other side,” Kobza said.
Some school history
When the van passed Masuk Nurseries on Barn Hill Road, Kobza shared a fact about the naming of the town’s high school. “Masuk was donated by a Russian immigrant,” he said. “The school was built in 1958.”
As the tour reached Benedict’s Home & Garden on Purdy Hill Road, Kobza took the opportunity to mention how the football field at Masuk is named Benedict Stadium Field after the well-known Monroe family, who was recently in the news for selling 65 acres of farmland along Newtown Road to Aspetuck Land Trust and the town to be set aside as open space.
The superintendent also told the new teachers about the Chalk Hill building, which was the town’s first middle school. “Jen and I went to Chalk Hill,” he said of Parsell, who also grew up in town.
Eventually Jockey Hollow was built, splitting grade levels with Chalk Hill before the latter building was closed due to declining student enrollment, making Jockey Hollow Monroe’s only middle school.
After the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Monroe allowed Newtown to use Chalk Hill for classes for four years, while Sandy Hook’s building was razed and a new school was built.
Kobza said Monroe’s student enrollment dropped steadily from 2000 to 2018-19.
“Then, oddly enough, during the pandemic Monroe became a desirable place to live and a lot of people moved up this way,” he said, adding how this was not so for some other surrounding towns. “Now, we’re having a facilities study and looking at whether to reopen Chalk Hill and reconfigure our grade levels or not.
Kobza said many teachers and other staff members enroll their children in the daycare center at Jockey Hollow Middle School, while they work. “It’s a nice thing we can offer our staff,” he said.
One appreciative new teacher expressed her belief that was an understatement, saying, “that is a big thing.”
The brief history of Monroe’s schools also included the establishment of STEM Academy and how the Masuk Alternative School was once housed where Tollgate Wine & Spirits is now, in Tollgate Plaza at 838 Main St.
The van passed by all three of the town’s elementary Schools.
Monroe Elementary School, 375 Monroe Turnpike, used to be called the Consolidated School when it was built in 1935, as the town moved away from one-room schoolhouses.
“When I was going into fifth grade the school burned down,” Kobza recalled of the major blaze in the summer of 1982. “We had to go to school in Shelton.”
Aside from educating students, the Monroe Elementary School building houses the district’s central office.
The van made stops at both Fawn Hollow and Stepney elementary schools, where Parsell beeped the horn as enthusiastic staffers came outside to greet everyone.
When the van entered Stepney’s wooded campus, Kobza said, “this is Stepney Elementary School — the school in the woods.”
Where to eat
Among the notable sites on the tour was the area near Blue Hills Road, which is believed to be the highest point in Monroe, according to Kobza. “I heard you can see the Long Island Sound,” he said.
When the tour reached the Monroe Senior Center, Kobza joked, “keep that in mind 40 years from now.”
He noted how drivers can avoid both of Monroe’s busiest commercial thoroughfares on Main Street (Route 25) and Monroe Turnpike (Route 111) by using alternative routes to get across town.
“It’s good to know these side roads,” Kobza said.
Driving by shopping areas led to mentions of good places to stop for lunch.
Parsell drove the van past the building housing Wayback Burger, Jersey Mike’s and Chipotle at the corner of Main Street and Purdy Hill Road, which is a stone’s throw from the nearby property where a new Starbucks is under construction.
During the tour, Kobza recommended Sal’s Family Pizza, Bella Rosa Pizzeria Ristorante and Soup Thyme, which he said has good paninis to help staffers get through professional development days.
Bella Rosa is owned by David Rodrigues, a Masuk alum. “He’s flexible. He’ll deliver,” Parsell said.
“Dave does a lot for the schools and really supports our programs,” Kobza added.
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where is all this $ coming from?
is the system counting on what??