"Spring never waits for Winter to leave.

It comes and drives away the cold.

You need no perfect time to start.

You start, and it's the perfect time."

Laura is an early intervention student who started her services virtually in September of 2020. Laura now attends a classroom in our Chestnut Street location and works hard in the classroom and in her physical therapy sessions. She is always smiling and spends time trying to get others to laugh. She lights up the room with her sense of joy for life. Laura is very animated and has an infectious smile and laugh. She recently joined both a special needs cheerleading and soccer team. Laura’s family is multilingual and she can speak Spanish, Portuguese and English. Laura’s classroom teacher notes that she loves music and singing and enjoys playing with dolls and the classroom kitchen set. She is preparing to enter kindergarten at Valley View Elementary this fall. Laura has made great strides with her academic, speech, and social emotional goals. Her team is confident that she will do amazing things in her kindergarten classroom.

Billy began his career at the NEIU in July of 2006 as part of the maintenance team at the Dunmore Learning Campus. Over the last 16 years, Billy has been instrumental in handling the maintenance needs of not just one building, but of all of the NEIU locations. He takes pride in his work and also values the importance of maintaining the Dunmore Learning Campus as a safe and reliable space for all staff and students. Billy’s ability to get projects completed and coordinate work, has earned him a leadership role among the maintenance staff. He is the first level of support for maintenance issues at the Dunmore Learning Campus. Billy works closely with all of the staff and supervisors to make sure their maintenance concerns are addressed quickly. He truly understands how important the building is for our students. Billy never shies away from hard work or finding creative solutions to day to day issues that arise on campus. It is not uncommon to see him cleaning a floor, building a cabinet or even directing traffic in the parking lot. He is always willing to pitch in where needed and always with a smile.

Keep shining brightly, Billy, and thank you for your incredible service to our IU...

Students from Mr. Ivosevic's class and Mrs. Hunt's class had a great time celebrating St. Patrick's Day on Friday, March 17th. Activities included cup stacking, making shamrock shakes, and fun festivities. A surprise leprechaun appearance was made by Mr. Paul Layton, one of our crisis workers.

The NEIU Learning Campus is gearing up for Spring as they help Speech and Language decorate the foyer bulletin board. They are also creating a school wide Spring craft to display throughout the building.

Every year, high school and middle school students across the NEIU 19 area compete in the PA Media and Design Competition. The competition showcases their creativity, technical skills, and ability to communicate effectively through the six categories of 3-D Design, Animation, Digital Movie, Logo and Graphic Design, Programming and Web Page Design. The competition was held at Keystone College on March 17, 2023, where the entries were judged by a panel of experts in the respective fields, and the winners were announced later that day at the awards ceremony. The first-place winners are then eligible to compete at the state level, held in May at Dickinson College. It is the first time the regional competition was held in person since the pandemic and was a great experience for the students to not only showcase their talents, but to also experience a college campus and see other students’ works.

Why should basketball players have all the fun in March? The NEIU Educational Programs and Services Department celebrated the love of literacy with the 2023 NEIU Reading Tournament. Forty four teams ranging from grades 4-12 competed in the preliminary bracket on Monday, March 6 and Tuesday, March 7, 2023.

The teams who placed in the ELITE 8 are as follows:

HIGH SCHOOL

Mid Valley High School- Advisor: Sue Piorkowski

Valley View High School -Advisor: Kathleen Myers

Mountain View High School- Advisor: Stephanie Kile

Dunmore High School- Advisor: Maura Irving

Western Wayne High School- Advisor: Amanda Jenkins

Holy Cross High School- Advisor: Janine Wetter

Riverside High School- Advisor: Christina McDermott

North Pocono High School- Advisor: Kelly Slater

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Mid Valley High School- Advisor: Sue Piorkowski

Abington Heights Middle School- Advisor: Victoria Borel

Riverside Middle School- Advisor: Suzi Taylor/Katie Radle

Howard Gardner Middle School- Advisor: Kim Hoskins

Wayne Highlands Middle School- Advisor: Amy Flederbach

Valley View Middle School- Advisor: Nicole Berta

North Pocono Middle School- Advisor: Christine Nemitz

Forest City Middle School- Advisor: Leah Zawisky

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Forest City Elementary- Advisor: Leah Zawisky

Abington Heights- Advisor: Julie Klee

Riverside Elementary- Advisor: Krystal Sinkaus

Riverside Elementary- Advisor: Ashley Trolio

Wallenpaupack Elementary- Advisor: Heather Hess

Wallenpaupack Elementary- Advisor: Lisa Ostrowski

North Pocono Intermediate- Advisor: Heather Phillips

North Pocono Intermediate- Advisor: Jennifer Rizzitano

The NEIU Educational Programs and Services team is very excited to host the FINAL FOUR from each group, who will be competing IN-PERSON at the NEIU Administration Building on Wednesday, March 29, Thursday, March 30, and Friday, March 31, 2023.

The FINAL FOUR teams are as follows:

HIGH SCHOOL

Mid Valley High School- Advisor: Sue Piorkowski

Valley View High School- Advisor: Kathleen Myers

Mountain View High School- Advisor: Stephanie Kile

Dunmore High School- Advisor: Maura Irving

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Wayne Highlands Middle School- Advisor: Amy Flederbach

Valley View Middle School- Advisor: Nicole Berta

North Pocono Middle School- Advisor: Christine Nemitz

Forest City Middle School- Advisor: Leah Zawisky

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Wallenpaupack Elementary- Advisor: Heather Hess

Wallenpaupack Elementary- Advisor: Lisa Ostrowski

North Pocono Intermediate- Advisor: Heather Phillips

North Pocono Intermediate- Advisor: Jennifer Rizzitano

This event is growing each year and includes sixteen districts from the NEIU footprint and one district from Luzerne County. We are looking forward to bringing the students back to the NEIU, in-person, to compete in the FINAL FOUR...

To quote UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden:

"Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character"

The Northeastern Educational Intermediate Union (NEIU) will be hosting the 2023 NEIU Academic Challenge. This face-to-face competition will be held at the NEIU Administration Building located at 1200 Line Street Archbald, PA, on April 17, 2023 from 9:00 AM- 3:00PM. The NEIU Academic Challenge coordinating team has enlisted the assistance of the Chester County Intermediate Unit to facilitate this event. To better prepare teams for advancement, the format of the event is mirrored to reflect the state competition. Schools are encouraged to select up to five students in grades 9-12 to compete in this competition. The winner of the regional competition will move on to the state competition located at the State Museum of Pennsylvania on April 29th, 2023. The returning champions from Wallenpaupack Area High School are registered to defend their title. We look forward to this competitive academic event!

If you have any questions, please contact:

Michael Motsko, Academic Challenge Coordinator at, mmotsko@iu19.org or call 570-876-9201.

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." ~Helen Keller