Group donates to Poland school

The academic booster club honored both an outstanding alumnus and an educator.

STAFF REPORT

POLAND — The Poland Schools Foundation for Educational Excellence has donated $15,000 to improve educational technology at Poland Seminary High School.

The academic booster club said the money will be used to equip 12 classrooms with the interactive STARRS technology developed by Turning Technologies of Youngstown.

The system allows students to use hand-held, remote controls to interact with the system.

The grant was announced at the foundation’s 15th annual dinner held this week.

As part of that event, the foundation recognized Jimmy Sutman, Class of 1990, as the outstanding alumnus of the year, and teacher Mike Simington, Class of 1966, as the outstanding educator.

Sutman is director of Iron & String Life Enhancement Inc. of Youngstown, which he founded a decade ago to help people with disabilities.

The program operates the Purple Cat day program for adults with disabilities and the Touch the Moon Candy Saloon which employs people with mental and physical disabilities.

Sutman also operates Golden String LLC, a nonprofit organization that funds Purple Cat and Touch the Moon, and is a former girls’ soccer coach at Poland.

Simington, who has taught in the high school since 1974, teaches honors and college English.

He has been an assistant and head coach of high school football and track and an assistant cross-country coach, spending 28 years in coaching.

He was inducted into Poland’s sports hall of fame in 2005 and holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Mount Union College, and master’s degrees in English from Kent State University and education from Youngstown State University.