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Occupiers Helping Out IDEA Charter Opponents

Photo by KUT News.

The Austin Independent School District says all 30 slots are filled to speak at tonight’s specially-called board meeting. The board is scheduled to vote on a contentious proposal to partner with a charter school operator to run programs at two East Austin schools. Members last week delayed a vote to partner with IDEA Public Schools amid some questions on the contract and pushback from some teachers and parents.

Some Occupy Austin protestors camped out last night to save spots in line so that parents and teachers could sign up early to speak to the board.

"We went ahead and arrived at AISD headquarters at 7 p.m. last night and slept in the rain, we set up some tents and some folks slept in the rain but it was good," said Dave Cortez, one organizer with Occupy Austin.

Cortez says about 45 people spent the night outside District headquarters. He says some "Occupiers" will return this evening to rally in support of East Side community members.

"The reason Occupy Austin got involved in this fight was in order to preserve the democratic process for parents and students on the East Side. We do have some members who do not support charter schools, we have some that do," Cortez said.

KUT's Nathan Bernier will be at tonight's school board meeting and will bring us the latest. You can follow his tweets and others by searching #aisd on Twitter.