The final Highland Park High School was built in 1977 to better accommodate students than the old facility had.

[3] When Martin visited the school he encountered many empty and unused classrooms and various kinds of damage and wear, including water damage, exposed concrete beams, missing and falling ceiling panels, and exposed wiring.

Highland Park High School was scheduled to close on at the end of June 2015.

Other students moved on to the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) Central Collegiate Academy.

The swim program shut down after 1993. Notable SEC champions for Highland Park: John Mayes (1986), John Smith (1987), Eric Smith (1987) William Thomas (1989), Bruce Pearson(1989) (diving).

In recent years, Highland Park had athletic success, including two state semi-final finishes in Football in 2005 and 2006, a district championship in girls softball in 2006.

The baseball team had a remarkable season in 2008 as it went 20-7 and were Michigan Mega Conference Champions.

They also had 7 individual wrestling championships by Jarod Trice (2006, 2007), Anthony Jones (2007), Marcell Dubose (2005, 2006), and Quean Smith (2010, 2011).

Highland Park had multiple runner up appearances in wrestling and boys basketball.