BRUNSWICK

John Stadler has withdrawn his tentative plan to build an international school on the campus of Brunswick Landing after a cool reception from local residents and criticism that discussion of the potential school violated state public access laws.

The Times Record reported Oct. 31 that a former school board member, Michelle Small, had contacted the Maine Department of Education with complaints that discussion between Stadler and an ad hoc committee made up of town school officials had not adhered to public meeting guidelines.

Although an official from the state attorney general’s office later ruled that a violation had not occurred, Stadler pulled the project from consideration on Monday.

Stadler, a local businessman, already has founded one charter school in Massachusetts and is working to establish another in the province of Wuxi, China, about 100 miles west of Shanghai.

He first broached the idea of Brunswick Landing International School to Superintendent of Schools Paul Perzanoski in August 2012. The three-person ad hoc committee was established to determine whether Stadler’s proposal was viable and what effect, either positive or adverse, it would have on the town’s public schools.

An ad hoc charter school committee was formed in spring 2012 to consider local ramifications of such a school in the same proximity as the town’s public school district, as well as the recently established Harpswell Coastal Academy charter school. Current board Chairman Jim Grant, William Thompson and Chris McCarthy comprise the ad hoc group. Each of the members met with Stadler at one time or another on an individual and informal basis to hear his idea, Perzanoski said.

According to Stadler’s projections, the international school would have drawn about 700 students from abroad, about 500 from Maine and 400 more from the region and would have been under Brunswick School District’s oversight.

jtleonard@timesrecord.com

¦ JOHN STADLER, a local businessman, already has founded one charter school in Massachusetts and is working to establish another in the province of Wuxi, China, about 100 miles west of Shanghai.