 This was accompanied and complicated by a drop in attendance from students who lived in the area, who starting in the mid-1980s chose to go other schools in the area

In 1988, Midland was risking closure as hundreds of students, parents and teachers jammed the meeting in protest.Trustees were scrambling to find a place to put Scarborough Centre for Alternative Studies to that location (see below) SBE has decided to transfer the adult school because it didn't want to part with an ordinary high school due to nearby Tabor Park Vocational School (which is a 2-minute drive) was handed over to the Metropolitan Separate School Board (now the Toronto Catholic District School Board) by July 1989.The reason given was that enrolment at Midland was declining as projections up to 1996 showed that about 740 students attended the school.