Masuk Free Press

Walking into Masuk High School as a teacher after once being a student here is like stepping into a time machine—only this time you’re the one assigning the homework. For many Masuk alumni-turned-teachers, returning to the same classrooms and hallways is a blend of nostalgia, comfort and a strange sense of déjà vu. 

For both Megan Bartosik (Class of 2007) and Susan Clark (Class of 1999), coming back to Masuk felt less like a career decision and more like a homecoming. “Even when I was a student here, I loved coming into school,” Bartosik said. “So coming back home to Masuk just felt right.” 

Clark agrees with this sentiment, though she admits it came with a funny adjustment: “There were still a lot of teachers I had, and now we’re colleagues. It was hard to break the habit of saying Mr. and Mrs. and start calling them by their first name.”

Mr. Manelli, who began teaching at Masuk in 1993, has watched many former students return as coworkers—including Bartosik and Clark. “It definitely was not weird or strange,” he said. “I think because I was almost semi-prepared as it has happened frequently over the years. It didn’t faze me.”  

Much of what drew the alumni back were the teachers who inspired them. For Bartosik, Mr. Cianciolo, her photography teacher, helped her see the world through a new lens. “He inspired me to do better each time I took a picture. He also gave the best pep talks.”

Clark remembers Mrs. Buturla’s humor and warmth and credits her French teacher, Mrs. Peterson, with pushing her outside her comfort zone—literally. “She took a chance on me… including two trips to Europe. Those relationships shaped how I want to be a teacher.” 

These role models didn’t just influence them as students; they shaped how they now teach the next generation of Masuk Panthers.

Both Clark and Bartosik say Masuk’s spirit has shifted dramatically since their time as students. Pep rallies today are louder, livelier and full of student participation—something Bartosik says she wishes she’d gotten to experience. “We were not like that when I was here. If I had Mr. Castillo DJing that would have been so much fun.” Clark echoed the sentiment, noting how different the atmosphere once was: “We even used to have a homecoming parade.”

But some aspects remain unchanged. Pride in athletics, for example, is as strong as ever. “There’s a lot of emphasis on football now, and that was the same back when I was in school here,” Bartosik said. She even jokes that a Letterman jacket played a role in her teenage love story. “I was impressed by one in particular—who became my husband.”

Still, even with those traditions holding steady, much else has shifted with each generation. Manelli has witnessed these shifts; he recalls when phrases like “diesel”—meaning muscular—floated around the hallways. “By 2000… I never really heard anybody saying it,” he said. He recalls “starter jackets being everywhere, Wu-Tang shirts being a trend and the excitement when DVD players first replaced VHS tapes.”

“Little things like that just fizzled out,” he said. “Brands, slang, fads—they all evolve.”

If anything has transformed Masuk the most, it’s technology. Clark loves the modern tools: “The technology is incredible now… I love the smartboards.”

But with tech’s perks come challenges that didn’t exist when the alumni were students.

“Before cell phones were the issue,” Manelli said, “it was beepers.” He remembers students’ beepers going off in class, sending them running to the payphone near today’s security desk. “It was an annoying disturbance,” he admits. Faculty meetings about beepers back then mirror the complaints of cell phones today. He laughs at how nothing really changes: “What people were complaining about in the ’90s about beepers later got replaced by the cell phones.” Even Superintendent Joseph Kobza, a Masuk alumnus himself, reflects on the school’s evolution. Social media, he says, has changed how teens interact, but the school’s mission remains the same: building connections and community. “I would love to see kids spend less time on their phones and more time making authentic, real-life connections,” he said. 

While technology and communication have shifted, the sense of what it means to belong at Masuk has evolved as well. Clark and Bartosik agree that Masuk students today show a sense of pride and engagement that feels stronger than when they were teens. Bartosik said, “Students today have so much more spirit. When we were students, it wasn’t like this… but now, kids are really proud to be Masuk Panthers, and that shapes the school culture.” 

Beyond the classroom, the Masuk community continues to draw people in. Athletic director and fellow alumnus Brian Hourigan says, “Anytime someone from Masuk does well, it makes me proud… We never had days like [Signing Day for athletes] when I was a student-athlete.”

Bartosik says it best: “The fact that we were here for four years, and we probably said the same things the current students do about it being boring here—and then we all wanted to come back? That tells you Masuk is a special place.”

“When you teach where you once learned, you understand both sides of the classroom… and that’s a powerful feeling,” said Clark. 

And for teachers like Manelli, who has spent over three decades in these halls, the message is just as clear: some communities stay with you—and some you never want to leave.

What connects every alumni-staff story—whether someone returned after graduation or stayed for 30 years—is the realization that Masuk isn’t just a school. It’s a place that shapes people, pulls them back, and becomes part of who they are.