Original Research by School Decision on Freeburg Community High Sch
Freeburg Community High School serves a small enrollment of students in grades nine through twelve from Freeburg, a small residential village in southeastern St. Clair County that functions as an exurban commuter community for the Greater St. Louis area. The school sits at the center of the village, within the same street grid as the library, parks, and local commerce, rather than on a separated campus.
The student body is overwhelmingly white, reflecting the composition of the broader community. The school's enrollment is evenly distributed across all four grades, suggesting stable year-to-year cohorts. Data on free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education enrollment, English learner numbers, state assessment results, and graduation rate were not available, so a parent cannot use this profile to assess academic proficiency or college-readiness outcomes. The absence of these figures is typical in the data reported publicly for schools, and a family interested in the school's academic standing should contact the district or school directly to request testing data, graduation rates, and course offerings.
Freeburg has been growing steadily over the past two decades as suburban development spreads outward from St. Louis. The housing market in the area is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, with median home values below the Illinois average. The community blends older midcentury and turn-of-the-twentieth-century homes in the village center with newer subdivisions on the outskirts, including active developments like Timberwolf Estates and Homes at Brickyard. Employment in Freeburg itself is limited; most residents commute to Downtown St. Louis or the Belleville area for work, with professional services and trades the primary local job categories. The village sits along State Routes 13 and 15, providing road access but no fixed-route public transit.
A major institutional change is underway. Illinois legislation passed the House in April 2025 that would require the high school to retire its Midgets mascot, which dates back nearly a century, by September 2028 and adopt a new one. Freeburg Community High School is currently the only school in Illinois to which this law would apply. For families, this represents a lasting identity shift affecting athletics branding, merchandise, traditions, and incurring rebranding costs. The change has been the subject of intense community debate.
The school operates as a regular public high school within Freeburg Community High School District 77. Civic anchors in the village include the Freeburg Recreation Park, a roughly 65-acre facility with a fishing lake, swimming pool, ball diamonds, and walking loop, plus a downtown Memorial Park honoring veterans. The area's small-town character and commuter economy mean that daily life is primarily car-based, with commerce concentrated along State Street.
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