A disgruntled resident from Newton County School System's District 1 scolded board members Tuesday night for a variety of things, including not enforcing their own rules for public participation and for passing a resolution that asked voters to vote no for the charter school amendment.

Logan Bistok first reprimanded Chairman Eddie Johnson for allowing Chamber President Hunter Hall to go over the five minute allotted time for public participation at the meeting last week when Hall addressed Meadors and asked the District 1 representative to stop writing opinion columns for the Newton Citizen. Bistok told Johnson that as chairman of the board, it was his job to make sure parliamentary procedures were followed. He then said he felt Hall "personally attacked" Meadors and was allowed more time to do so.

Bistok said that Meadors' column "tells a lot of truths," and that it could be useful for the other board members to work toward "raising the bar" and they should take it as a challenge.

He also took umbrage to comments made by Superintendent Gary Mathews, who said comparing a system the size of Newton's to neighboring Walton, Monroe and Butts counties was like comparing "apples to oranges."

"If we don't compare to Walton who do we compare to?" asked Bistok. "APS? Cobb County? And this board takes up a resolution to tell me, as a citizen, how I'm supposed to vote on a Constitutional Amendment on a Charter School? Why Charter Schools have become so popular is because school boards can't make decisions.

"Everybody up here is a politician...you gotta have tough skin. Some people aren't going to like what ideas you have, but ordering people around and telling them what way to vote on things? That's Communism, that's Nazism."