William McKinley High School

William McKinley High School for the Arts is a fictional school and one of the main settings in the show. The school is named after William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, who was born in Niles, Ohio. The school is supposed to be located in the city of Lima, Ohio, however no school in Lima is actually named McKinley. In Ohio, there are McKinley High Schools in Canton and Niles.

Many of the location scenes at McKinley were filmed at Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School in Long Beach, California and Helen Bernstein High School in Los Angeles, California, though auditorium scenes were filmed at a replica of the Cabrillo auditorium on the Paramount lot.

The school mascot is the Titans, and the school colors are red and black.

In Dreams Come True, the school becomes arts-oriented after Superintendent Harris made a pitch to the school board following New Directions' victory at the 2015 Nationals competition.