Epstein School cancels expansion plan

The private Epstein School has shelved a plan to expand its campus into a surrounding neighborhood in Sandy Springs, citing a sour economy.

School leaders said they had decided to cancel the proposed addition after speaking with fund-raising consultants. Next month, leaders of the Jewish day school will ask the Sandy Springs City Council to withdraw its application, school officials said in a statement released Wednesday evening.

Last summer, school officials sought city permission to expand the school from 650 students to 850 and to expand its campus to include a theater and an early childhood education building.

The campus on Colewood Way would have grown by 4 acres to 15 acres. The project would have required the demolition of several single-family homes, a prospect that angered many long-time residents. Several hundred residents packed public meetings on the project.

About the same time, the school also drew attention when vandals twice painted anti-Semitic symbols near the campus.

As a condition for its acquisition of what had been a public school, Epstein in 1994 agreed to hold its enrollment to 650. Several neighbors said they felt betrayed by the push for growth.

Stan Beiner, Epstein’s head of school, could not be reached by telephone Wednesday.

Robert Franco, president of the school’s board of trustees, said in the statement: “The school has an obligation not just to future generations, but to the families and students that are presently enrolled. As one door may close, another will undoubtedly open in the future.”

The president of a local neighborhood association said Wednesday she was pleased the school had changed course.

“I think it would have been denied,” said Ann Feldman, president of the Mountaire Springs Neighborhood Association. “I think we would have been able to show the City Council they were not working with us, and it was not right for the neighborhood. I hope the school can sit back and reflect and realize more students and more buildings are not going to be right for the city.”