William Penn SHS

Set in York, Pennsylvania, William Penn SHS is an expansive four-year high school, one of the schools within York City SD. It teaches 1,681 students across grades 9 through 12. Compared to the state average of about 738 students per school, that is 128% bigger than typical.

York City SD runs 9 schools in total, collectively educating 6,306 students. William Penn SHS is one of those campuses.

On demographics, William Penn SHS records that the largest single group is Hispanic at 47%, but no single group is in the majority. Other groups include 39% Black, 7% White, 7% multiracial. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 10%.

On the resource side, On paper, William Penn SHS has 98 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 17.1:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 12.8:1, putting William Penn SHS higher than the state norm the norm. Roughly 96% of students at William Penn SHS qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, York County runs at roughly 53%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, On a poverty-adjusted basis, William Penn SHS sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 36.6%; actual is 19.4%, a gap of -17.2 points.

Across the wider county, community-level numbers for York County indicate the typical household earns roughly $84,829 per year, 28% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Across York County's 111 public schools (combined enrollment of about 64,242 students), William Penn SHS is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: McKinley Sch, around 0.4 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around William Penn SHS. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), William Penn SHS ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 15.5%.

The campus sits in a metropolitan setting.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at William Penn SHS has climbed 56%, going from 1,081 students in 2018 to 1,681 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share contracted from 11% to 7%. Class-load math has rose: from 15.4:1 in 2018 to 17.1:1 in 2025.

On allk12, the feed for William Penn SHS typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.