Hundreds of low-income families throughout Luzerne County are eligible to sign up for a new program offered by Comcast that would mean monthly Internet bills of $9.95, a $31 savings off the regular service price.
Though Comcast serves a geographic majority of Luzerne County, it does not serve the greater Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton or Mountain Top areas. It does serve most of the West Side, the greater Pittston area, the greater Nanticoke area and much of the Back Mountain. To see if your home is in Comcast territory, call 1-855-846-8376. You can learn more about the program at www.InternetEssentials.com.
Called Internet Essentials, the program offers low-cost access to the Internet and even fully-installed netbook computers for families in Comcast Internet territory who have children eligible to receive free lunches through the National School Lunch Program. The program launched earlier this summer and was a condition of the Federal Communication Commission for Comcast to secure federal approval to purchase NBC Universal. As part of the merger, Comcast agreed to “increase broadband deployment in low income households.”
The Internet Essentials program meets that requirement.
Anthony Perrone, superintendent of the Greater Nanticoke Area School District, said the program comes at a good time, because of the difficult economy.
With many families dealing with unemployment and children affected by their parents’ loss of income, the Internet can become an unaffordable luxury. But the lack of Internet service at home could negatively impact a student.
“I know how important they (computers) are,” Perrone said. “There’s a reason we have them in every classroom.” He said letters will be sent home to all families with students in the district, along with school bus schedules, detailing the program and information on eligibility and how to sign up.
Perrone said 43 percent of the 2,250 students in his district are eligible for the free lunch program, and all districts include families living in poverty and suffering from economic hardships.
Comcast spokesman Bob Grove said the company has known there is “a digital divide in this country and we see this as a way we can help to bridge that divide.” He added that research has shown that there are three barriers to people getting on the Internet: cost of the computer, cost of the service and a lack of understanding of how the Internet is relevant and useful. He said this program “addresses all three.”
In addition to the affordable internet, the program offers the opportunity to buy a netbook computer for $149.99 plus tax and access to free digital literacy training in print, online or in person.

3/31/2013
GNA teacher vying for space trip
pcameron@citizensvoice.com

Greater Nanticoke Area High School science teacher Anthony Fleury is trying to win an online contest that will send the winner on a trip into outer space, 64 miles above the Earth. Fleury is currently sitting in 30th place out of nearly 50,000 contest entrants.
It's probably fair to say that every student at one point has a teacher they would like to blast into outer space.
Some students in the Greater Nanticoke Area High School might actually get to do it.
Anthony Fleury, science teacher and space exploration geek, is currently sitting in 30th place out of nearly 50,000 in an online contest that could send someone 64 miles above the Earth.
"If I could bring that experience back into the classroom, how amazing would that be?" he said. "A part of all my students will get the chance to see that, to feel that, to know what it's like."
Sponsored by Axe - a company better known for body spray and provocative commercials - and a private space travel firm, the top two vote getters from participating countries will win a trip to space camp in Orlando. A panel of "space experts" will then select those "worthy of a space trip," according to the rules of the contest.
The approximate retail value of a commercial space flight, according to Axe, is $86,000. The company also gives the winner a $25,000 stipend to help pay the taxes on the prize.
Fleury's fiancee and fellow Greater Area Nanticoke High School science teacher Amanda Schraeder said the possibility of her future husband leaving the Earth was both scary and exciting, but she's confident in the safety and professionalism of the mission because the couple has met the pilot ("very, very experienced") and has been to the floor where the firm is building the spacecraft.
Fleury, a 43-year-old Northumberland native, is currently well behind the two leaders, both of whom are minor celebrities from Internet videos with large followings, at least compared to a science teacher from small-town Pennsylvania.
But while the odds of winning the trip may seem as likely as getting hit by a meteor, the science instructor has already left the Earth's field of gravity once in his life.
Fleury often participates in teacher workshops and camps with NASA and private space contractors, one of which flew him and fellow educators high enough to experience weightlessness several times before returning to Earth.
On that flight, the teacher brought experiments - a pendulum and a bouncing spring - to test the physical difference in zero gravity and then shared that data with his students. As a more worldly example, he often uses his beat-up Pontiac Sunfire and its frequent breakdowns to teach physics.
"I really consider myself a teacher who can bring all of my experiences into the classroom, no matter how small," Fleury said.
To give his students another whiff of the edges of the atmosphere, one of his classes launched a weather balloon from Nanticoke that climbed 90,000 feet, snapping aerial photographs of the Chesapeake Bay and Long Island, before landing on a guy's porch in New Jersey. Fleury was able to recover the payload by placing a cellphone into the balloon and tracking it on a website.
Now his pupils are taking control, spreading the word by mouth and online to push to the top of the leader board a teacher who lives, breathes and sleeps space travel.
"It's just in his being," said Deanna Dinelli, a 17-year-old senior and student of Fleury's. "It's everything he does."
To vote for Anthony Fleury, visit https://www2.axeapollo.com/en_US before April 27.

12/17/2012
GNA School District hosts community Christmas drive
Times Leader

The Greater Nanticoke Area School District is holding its annual community Christmas drive. The drive has been held for the past 40 years to provide children with gifts and food certificates for the holiday. The administration, secretaries, teachers, students and friends all help to make the drive a success. The campaign starts at Thanksgiving and runs through the week before Christmas. To make a donation, contact a class officer or member of the Student Council. The Greater Nanticoke Area High School Class of 1962 recently made a donation of $550 to the annual holiday drive. At the check presentation, from left, are Trent Grey; Carol Baron, Class of ’62; John Gorham, principal; Leslie Cimakasky; Kayla Gronkowski; Alyshia Ennis; Austin Grey; Renee Pavelitz; Carol Kelly; and Sonia Toporcer.