Southeast Polk High School

Southeast Polk High School is one of the expansive four-year high schools in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, operated by Southeast Polk Comm School District, with 1,722 students on its rolls from grades 10 through 12. That puts it 268% above the typical public school in Iowa, which averages around 468 students.

Southeast Polk Comm School District runs 10 schools in total, collectively educating 6,359 students. Southeast Polk High School is one of those campuses.

On the student-mix side, Southeast Polk High School lists that White students make up the majority at 72%; the rest comes out to 11% Hispanic, 9% Black, 5% multiracial. That composition is broadly in line with Polk County as a whole.

On the resource side, On paper, Southeast Polk High School has 99 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 17.4:1. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 33% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is south of Polk County's rate of about 49%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Southeast Polk High School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 75.2% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 67.5%.

Around the school, census data for Polk County shows the typical household earns roughly $83,576 per year, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. In all, Polk County runs 137 public schools (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students), of which Southeast Polk High School is one.

Four Mile Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.9 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Southeast Polk High School comes 6th of 9 in the immediate cluster, behind the nearby-schools average of 68.9%.

The campus sits in a rural setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Southeast Polk High School has ticked down 17%, going from 2,073 students in 2018 to 1,722 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 83% to 72% across the same window. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 18.4:1 in 2018 to 17.4:1 today.

On allk12, members of the Southeast Polk High School community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.