Sandy Springs, GA – Neighbors Take Down Signs Opposing Jewish School Expansion

Sandy Springs, GA – Homeowners in a Sandy Springs neighborhood surrounding the private Epstein School have voluntarily taken down signs protesting the school’s proposed expansion, an attempt to ease tension on the debate.

Ann Feldman, president of the Mountaire Springs Neighborhood Association, said the move was intended to show goodwill.

More than 100 of the small signs – reading “Epstein Expansion” with a slash mark through it – have occupied front yards for several months.
The signs made a strong statement of opposition, but one that might have been misinterpreted by some of the young students at Epstein, a Jewish school for students in elementary and middle grades.

Stan Beiner, Head of School, said students returning to classes this month thought the signs were directed at them.
In an interview, Beiner said students have asked him: “Do people hate us?”

Beiner called it “an unintended consequence” of the conflict over the expansion plans, but one that was having an impact on the children.

The proposed expansion would allow the school to grow to 850 students, from 650, and would include a theater, an early childhood education building and expanded on-campus parking. If approved, the campus would expand by four acres, to 15 acres, through the razing of several homes on an adjacent street.

Feldman, who represents a neighborhood that is mostly opposed to the expansion, said the words for the signs were chosen carefully. The message protests the expansion, not the existing school.

But she and others agreed to take them down, after that suggestion was made by a member of the city’s Planning Commission meeting.

“If it in any way is contributing to bad feelings in the neighborhood, then let’s bring them down,” Feldman said.