For three decades, The Mandelstam School (TMS) has served South Miami as a small, steady, and deeply respected educational institution.
Recently, however, misinformation has spread suggesting that the school is attempting to “expand” or increase enrollment. This is incorrect. TMS is not expanding. In fact, the school was only drawn into conversations with the City because the City of South Miami requested an easement on TMS property to meet Miami-Dade Fire Department requirements for the City’s own project at Dante Fascell Park, which the school is open to. 

As part of that conversation, neighbors became aware that TMS plans to eventually replace outdated, portable structures such as their art and music rooms with safe, permanent buildings for services the school already provides to the community. The project does not increase students, traffic, or intensity of use, it only modernizes what already exists.

The issue being raised is based on misunderstanding, not fact, and imposes a new, arbitrary and overly burdensome restriction of a quota that could threaten the future of the school and set dangerous precedents for independent schools and small businesses in South Miami. 

 
The History of the Mandelstam School: An Institution Unlike Any Other
Since 1993, The Mandelstam School has offered something exceedingly rare in American education: a fully integrated model combining academics, gymnastics, and the arts. Rooted in a pioneering doctoral dissertation of Carol Mandelstam, this “triad model” develops the whole child: discipline through athletics, creativity through the arts, and strong academics grounding it all. 

TMS is the only independent private elementary school in South Miami and the only in the nation with this approach. For over 30 years, it has quietly educated multiple generations of students who go on to attend top magnet programs, competitive high schools, and prestigious universities, without ever becoming a source of neighborhood strain or conflict. In fact, multiple generations of TMS alumni now permeate throughout community leadership roles and excel across industries worldwide. 

With the demand for quality, child-focused education being at an all-time high, neighbors and local leaders should take all measures possible to encourage, not inhibit, schools like TMS to thrive and flourish. That is why it is imperative to understand the true facts, as burdening small independent schools could force them to close and would yield harms that far outweigh any falsely perceived benefit to congestion or traffic. 

 
Addressing the Misinformation Clearly
A small group has recently claimed that TMS is expanding and seeking City permission to do so. That is false. The key facts are: 

• There has never been an enrollment cap on this property. 
• The school is not asking to add one now.
• No increase in intensity of use is being proposed.

This clarity is essential because the issue being debated simply does not match the facts.

 
How This Process Started
This entire review was triggered not by the school, but by the City of South Miami, which would like an easement across TMS property to advance the City’s planned improvements at Dante Fascell Park. The City prefers an easement through TMS to avoid having to pave a path through the park, which the City deemed would be aesthetically unappealing. TMS is cooperating, as it has always done, and that cooperation placed the school into the City’s permitting process as the City itself will require permission for the easement with the Fire Department.

 
Traffic Concerns: Facts Matter
Traffic is a serious regional issue, but TMS is not the cause of the congestion on 57th Avenue, and its modernization efforts will not increase traffic. The Mandelstam school due to its ethos, curriculum and land area has been and will always be a small, independent school in South Miami. This is very different to all of the schools in the immediate area. 

To put concerns in perspective, this includes over 1,600 students across the street alone, including:

Epiphany School: ~800 students 

Lourdes: ~850 students

Temple Beth Am: ~520 students

St. Thomas: ~550 students

Sunset Elementary: ~1,150 students

Despite its comparatively tiny footprint, TMS has consistently been willing to adopt traffic-mitigation measures whenever requested. The facts and the school’s 30-year record all show the same thing: TMS is the smallest and one of the least impactful schools in the area. 

A Manufactured Issue, and a Real Risk to the Community
The objections raised stem from misunderstandings of property rights, zoning history, and the actual scope of the school’s vested property rights. Some neighbors may simply be misinformed; others are characterizing the improvements as something they are not.

But the consequences of acting on misinformation are real.

If TMS is prevented from making standard, lawful facility upgrades:

It sets a troubling precedent for every small school, church, or local small business trying to maintain safe facilities.
It signals that misconceptions outweigh facts, even when the record is clear.
And it puts at risk a cherished educational institution that has benefited thousands of children over three decades.
 
Why We Stand With TMS
We, the parents, alumni, neighbors, and supporters of The Mandelstam School, stand together to affirm:

TMS is modernizing responsibly.
TMS has been a good neighbor for more than 30 years.
TMS is a unique and valuable part of the South Miami community.
Let us choose clarity over confusion, facts over misinformation, and partnership over conflict.

TMS is not a threat.
It is an irreplaceable community treasure.
We urge our leaders and neighbors to support it, protect it, and stand with it.