Singer Billie Eilish donates signed T-shirts to Willoughby-Eastlake Schools levy drive

WILLOUGHBY, Ohio — Billie Eilish, the Grammy Award-winning singer who wrote the hit “Bad Guy,” is making a good impression on residents supporting the Willoughby-Eastlake School District’s levy drive.

Eilish, who won five Grammys last month, including for Best New Artist, Album, Song and Record of the Year, has donated three autographed long-sleeve T-shirts to help raise money for the school district’s levy committee. One T-shirt will be raffled off on March 12, while two others will put available for bid in an online auction, according Support Willoughby-Eastlake Schools, a group promoting the levy.

Devra Levine, a choir teacher at Willowick Middle School and North High School, tells WJW Channel 8 the shirts were donated after she contacted Eilish’s mother through a family friend.

Tickets for the raffle, which are $3 for one, $10 for four and $20 for 10, are on sale at South High School’s concession stand in Willoughby from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Tickets also will be sold at the Royalview Carnival from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 7.

A link for an online auction will be set up soon on the levy group’s website. Money from the raffle and auction will be used to purchase yard signs, print literature, advertisements and automatic phone calls.

Willoughby-Eastlake has a 10-year, 4.94 mill operating levy on the March 17 ballot. After a levy failed in November, the district made more than $2 million in cuts which included eliminating band and field trips, all athletics in the middle schools and all freshman athletics, and reducing busing to state minimums.

The district says if the levy fails in March, the district will make more than $5 million in cuts that will include reductions in teaching staff and the elimination of several varsity sports at the high schools, such as baseball, softball and swimming.