Homes in the
York HS district.

York Community High School opened in 1918, the year after the previous combined high school and grammar school in Elmhurst was destroyed by fire in December 1917. The building grew through a series of additions from 1950 through 1990, gaining a third floor, a four-classroom fourth floor, a swimming pool, and other facilities. In 2000, voters of District 205 passed a referendum to rebuild the school, and the new building first opened in 2002 with separate academic, service, student commons, and athletics areas, including a new fieldhouse. York remains the only secondary school in District 205, a unit district that also runs eight elementary schools and three middle schools.

In 2017, York posted an average composite ACT score of 24.5 and graduated 95.5 percent of its senior class. That year 54 percent of seniors had taken at least one Advanced Placement exam during high school, and of those who sat for an exam, 91 percent passed at least one. In the U.S. News 2017 High School rankings, York was ranked 18th among all high schools in Illinois.

York is best known nationally for boys cross country. Under legendary coach Joe Newton, who led the program from 1959 to 2016, the Dukes won 28 IHSA state cross country championships, the foundation of the Long Green Line tradition that was the subject of a documentary film. Newton also coached state-championship track and field teams and was inducted into the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame. The York baseball team won the state title in 1993. York competes in the West Suburban Conference and is a member of the IHSA.