This gave white parents a private-school alternative after federal courts ordered the racial integration of public schools.

[7][8] By the 1960s, the junior college's board of trustees had rejected at least two deals that would have given money to the school if it began admitting black and Jewish students, including an offer of $1 million (roughly $10,100,000 today[9]) from defense contractor Martin Company and a similar attempt two years later by the state of Florida.

[7][10] By the late 1960s, the school's enrollment had "declined dramatically" following the arrival of two public, integrated community colleges in the region.

[19] In March 1971, Chairman Guernsey announced that a fundraising drive had brought $300,000 in donations and pledges, that applications for enrollment were coming in so quickly that the student body might have to be capped at 800, and that tuition would increase to $550 per semester.

[19] He added that the junior college would close in August 1971,[13] leaving the entire 26-acre campus to the prep school.

[21] In May, Higginbotham resigned his county job to accept the newly created post of LHPS president.

[11] On his first day in his new job, he gave a speech in which he denounced the court order desegregating public schools, saying that "an era was dying" because of "legalistic do-gooders.

He was succeeded by Charles E. Bradshaw Jr., who had joined the board of the whites-only junior college in the late 1960s and subsequently helped lead the drive to establish the prep school.

Historically, Trinity Preparatory School has been Lake Highland's primary athletic rival,[27] mirroring their academic rivalry.

Bishop Moore High School has supplanted Trinity as LHP's annual football rival.

Lake Highland Prep also holds 15 Orlando Sentinel Varsity Cup “Super Six” awards from 2002 to 2016.

[32] In May 2020, the school's wrestling program left the FHSAA in order to compete as an independent and with a national schedule starting with the 2020–2021 academic year.