William Fremd High School

William Fremd High School, or Fremd (initially Palatine High School South), is a public four-year high school located in Palatine, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 211, which also includes James B. Conant High School, Hoffman Estates High School, Palatine High School, and Schaumburg High School. Academically, Fremd High School has also been recognized by Newsweek as one of "America's Best High Schools" and by U.S. News & World Report as one of 99 outstanding high schools in the United States with the average AP test taker in the class of 2018 taking 5.4 exams. Fremd serves the portion of Palatine that is southwest of the UP NW Line railroad tracks as well as north Hoffman Estates, west Rolling Meadows, north Schaumburg, east South Barrington and southeast Inverness. Feeder schools include Plum Grove Junior High, Carl Sandburg Junior High, Walter Sundling Junior High and Margaret Mead Junior High. Feeder elementary schools are Pleasant Hill, Paddock, Hunting Ridge, Central Road, Willow Bend, Thomas Jefferson, Marion Jordan, Fairview, and Frank C. Whiteley. History Fremd opened in 1961 as Palatine High School South. The school was later named after William Fremd who had been a member of the high school board of education for over 30 years and had served on school boards in the area for a consecutive period of more than 45 years. Fremd donated the land for the school. In the first yearbook the school was said to 'blend and stretch into the cornfields'. The school was the second high school to be built in Palatine, Illinois after Palatine High School. Palatine South and then Fremd originally served as the school for all Palatine freshman and sophomores while Palatine High School was the school for juniors and seniors. This plan was only in effect for three years before Fremd was expanded to serve as a 4 year high school. In the fall of 1966 the first junior class entered, and they became the first Fremd graduating class in 1968. Then Junior Cathy Klep designed the Viking logo, based on the Minnesota Vikings logo. Junior, Colleen McGrath designed the school crest, incorporating the Viking logo and modeled after her family crest. A school motto was adopted in 1995 after a contest for students. Sophomore Jessica Frank won the contest. In 2001, construction began to create a new science wing. The courtyard which stood in the center of the school was demolished.