Kathleen High School, 1100 Red Devil Way: grades 9-12, 1,861 students (2024-25), a C in Florida's 2026 school grades. 863-499-2655.

Last checked Oct. 9, 2026. Sources: Polk County Public Schools, its Address Zoning tool and school zones page, the school’s website, the Florida Department of Education’s 2026 school grades, the federal NCES school directory, the U.S. Census Bureau’s geocoder and the Florida High School Athletic Association.

Kathleen High School is a Polk County Public Schools high school on Red Devil Way. It has a Lakeland mailing address, but the campus sits just outside the city limits in unincorporated Polk County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s geocoder. It is on this list because its zone covers a large part of the city: about 28% of the Lakeland addresses we checked for 2026-27.

Who to call
Address 1100 Red Devil Way, Lakeland, FL 33815
Phone 863-499-2655
Grades 9 to 12
Principal Daraford Jones
2026 state grade C (55% of points)
Mascot Red Devils

Principal. Daraford Jones is the principal, according to the school’s staff page.

Kathleen High opened in 1928, which makes it the second-oldest high school in Lakeland, the school’s about page says.

Enrollment and teachers

  • Federal count: 1,861 students in the 2024-25 school year, with 76 full-time-equivalent classroom teachers, according to the NCES directory. That is about 24 students per teacher.

State report card

Florida gave Kathleen High a C in its 2026 school grades, with 55% of the points possible, after a C in 2025 and a D in 2024, according to the Florida Department of Education’s 2026 school grades file. The school’s state report card has results by student group; it is an interactive dashboard that could not be read for this page.

2026 school grade measure Result
School grade C (55% of points)
English language arts achievement 47%
English language arts learning gains 52%
Math achievement 27%
Math learning gains 40%
Science achievement 66%
Social studies achievement 64%
Graduation rate, 2024-25 87%
College and career acceleration, 2024-25 60%

Florida grades schools A to F on the share of possible points earned across these measures. Achievement is the share of tested students on grade level; learning gains is the share who improved from the year before. For a high school, A is 65% of points or more, B is 60% to 64% and C is 45% to 59%, the state’s file says.

Attendance zone and feeder schools

Polk County assigns high schools by home address. We ran a random sample of 1,817 current address points from the City of Lakeland’s address layer through the district’s Address Zoning tool for 2026-27. About 28% were zoned for Kathleen High, second only to Lakeland High at 43%.

Feeder schools. The district does not publish a feeder list; each grade is zoned by address, and the zones are not nested. Among the sampled city addresses zoned for Kathleen High, the district’s tool assigns middle school to Sleepy Hill Middle (73%), Kathleen Middle (14%) and Southwest Middle (13%). The most common elementary zones for those addresses are Sleepy Hill, Jesse Keen, Griffin and R. Bruce Wagner.

Rezoning. The Polk County School Board approved new high school attendance boundaries on Jan. 27, 2026, effective with the 2026-27 school year, the district announced. Students already enrolled at a high school may stay there, with bus service if eligible; rising freshmen enroll at their new zoned school. In our sample, Kathleen’s overall share of city addresses stayed at about 28%, but the lines shifted: some addresses moved from Lakeland High and George Jenkins to Kathleen, and a larger group moved from Kathleen to Lakeland High.

Check any address on the district’s GeoZone map for 2026-27.

Calendar and bell times

From the district’s 2026-27 calendar (PDF), which the district labels tentative:

  • Friday, Oct. 16: no school for students
  • Friday, Oct. 30: early dismissal
  • Wednesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day, no school
  • Nov. 23-27: fall break
  • Monday, Dec. 21: winter break begins; students return Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2027

Bell times. The school’s website does not publish its bell schedule; call the front office at 863-499-2655.

Sports and activities

In football, Kathleen plays in Class 4A, Region 2, District 7 for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons, with Brandon, Lake Region (Eagle Lake) and Lake Wales, according to the Florida High School Athletic Association’s finalized football classifications (spreadsheet).

The school’s home page says it has 21 FHSAA competitive sports teams and six career academies, along with visual, digital and performing arts programs. Its athletics page loads its team list in a browser tab that could not be read for this page. Follow the season on our Friday night football page and scoreboard.

More on Lakeland schools

Frequently asked questions

What grades does Kathleen High School serve?

Kathleen High serves grades 9 through 12. It is at 1100 Red Devil Way with a Lakeland mailing address, and its main line is 863-499-2655.

What is Kathleen High School’s Florida school grade?

Kathleen High earned a C in Florida’s 2026 school grades, with 55% of possible points, after a C in 2025 and a D in 2024. Its 2024-25 graduation rate was 87%.

Is Kathleen High in the Lakeland city limits?

No. The campus is just outside the city in unincorporated Polk County, but about 28% of the city addresses we checked in the district’s 2026-27 zoning tool are zoned for Kathleen High.

Which middle schools feed Kathleen High?

The district does not publish a feeder list. Among sampled city addresses zoned for Kathleen High, 73% are zoned for Sleepy Hill Middle, 14% for Kathleen Middle and 13% for Southwest Middle.