St. William Catholic School in Montclare sends ‘Hail Mary’ video to Jimmy Kimmel as school set to close on June 11

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI

The more than 100-year-old Saint William Catholic School in Montclare on the Northwest Side is scheduled to close on June 11, and the school is trying to catch the attention of late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in a last-minute Hail Mary.

The Archdiocese of Chicago, in a letter dated March 19, said it will close the school at 2559 N. Sayre Ave. at the end of the school year due to low enrollment and a deficit of $600,000. “We prefer to see a school enrollment of no fewer than 225 students,” the archdiocese said. “St. William has not had that many students since 2006. In fact, since 2018-19, enrollment has declined each year.”

The archdiocese said enrollment at the school is 120 students this year.

“As we feared, last year’s loss of the Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program has cost St. William dearly,” archdiocese Superintendent of Schools Greg Richmond said in the letter.

This is why students and faculty are trying to get the attention of Kimmel in hopes that he could tell the Catholic school’s story. Kimmel famously does segments with children who haven no idea what is actually going on to comedic effect. The school posted a video on its Facebook page saying it’s a “little school that could,” and “Your friend Stephen Colbert says that he is the most famous Catholic, but we think it’s you Jimmy.”

“We’re not asking for money,” one student says. “What we really want is someone to tell our story. Someone funny and someone kind. Someone who gets what it means to fight for the little guy. Sounds like you Jimmy,” the students say in the video. The video ends with the students saying, “But of course, we wouldn’t want you to feel any Catholic guilt though, now would we Jimmy? (wink) After all, it IS for the children.”

See the video here

“We really are not asking for money,” said school principal Jennifer Frazzini in an interview. “It’s (almost) 102 years of providing a Catholic education. It’s about building community. We’re just trying to get a shout out. Something other than just going to bed when the doors close. I think the school has touched so many people’s lives in this community.”

The school said it has had more than 12,000 views on its Facebook page and the response in the community has been “wonderful.”

Frazzini said that many parents are looking for another great school to send their children in the fall.

“I care deeply about our Saint William School community, and I commit to helping everyone find the next best school to meet your needs. I will be reaching out to many local Catholic schools to ensure they keep open spots for our amazing SWS families and staff,” Frazzini said in a statement on the school’s Web site.

She said that the idea for the video came from her dad. “He said, you know who needs to hear about this, it’s Kimmel,” she said. “I know it’s a silly idea, but we are just super excited that it has gotten the views it did. (The video) makes people smile during what many feel is a sad time (that the school is closing.)”

In 2023, Capitol News Illinois reported that the Invest in Kids program would sunset on Dec. 31 that year, “meaning donors to six state-approved private school scholarship funds will no longer be able to claim a 75 percent tax credit for their donations.”

Supporters argued it gave lower-income students the ability to attend schools that would otherwise be available only to wealthier families. “But opponents, including teachers’ unions and other advocates for public education, argued that the tax credits siphoned money out of state coffers that could have been used to support public schools,” Capitol News Illinois reported.

Frazzini said that, unfortunately, politics got in the way. “We were just collateral damage.” She said that before the program expired it provided a relief to the school to the tune of $220,000.

“I blame all the politicians. They just wouldn’t even call it for a vote and let it die,” she said. “The governor did nothing. The CTU put its spin on it. It was the unions who put the kibosh on it.”

“They made it seem like Catholic schools are competition to public schools. Catholic schools are not competition. We are a relief. We provided real school choice of where parents wanted to send their children,” Frazzini said.

However, Frazzini is not bitter. She said that she is enjoying spending the last few remaining weeks with the students and faculty until the doors close, and that the Facebook video was produced with the intention of not letting the school go off into the sunset without someone acknowledging its century-old existence on the Northwest Side.

As for Kimmel, it’s still unclear if he would catch the Hail Mary. He is, after all, about 2,000 miles away from Chicago.

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