The Preservation Project

Our name is ATX116 because it signifies the connection of all 116 campuses that existed in AISD when our organization was born.

To the closing schools– Barrington, Becker, Dawson, Oak Springs, Ridgetop, Sunset Valley, Widén and Winn Montessori elementary schools, Bedichek and Martin middle schools, and International High School*: You will always be part of our story and the web of public education in the City Austin. And you will certainly always be a part of ATX116 — you are literally a part of our name.

Some folks have asked if we will change our name in light of the recent closures. We will not and never plan to. Our story marks a moment in time in Austin's larger history and places our organization and its work in the context of all the work that was done before it existed and all that will come after.

One project we are working on is one we lovingly call The Preservation Project, in partnership with Martin Middle School. The Preservation Project is a community-based storytelling project to preserve and share the history of Martin Middle School through oral history interviews, short documentary film, photography, and community engagement in visual art. The project will culminate in a public exhibition and screening, offering Austin residents an opportunity to witness, honor, and learn from this school community.

What is happening now matters. Future communities will look back on this moment to learn from it. One interview participant in the Preservation Project from the Martin Middle School community named the stakes clearly: a responsibility to “preserve [our schools] at all costs”. Our advocacy goes on. We keep showing up.

Recording is wrapped. Editing is underway. We'll be releasing short clips live on our website at www.atx116.org as the story comes together, so check back often.

Thank you to our partners and collaborators for making this vision a reality:

Preservation Austin. This project was funded in part by a grant from Preservation Austin in support of its mission to empower Austinites to shape a more inclusive, resilient, and meaningful community culture through preservation.
Gail Buhler at Education Austin. Education Austin is the labor union representing teachers and staff in Austin ISD and is affiliated with the NEA, AFT, TSTA, Texas AFT, and the AFL-CIO. Gail is their Lead Organizer. We deeply appreciate your in-kind support, especially as you are simultaneously advocating for our teachers and students.
Gabriel Estrada at Austin Voices for Education and Youth for his collaboration and support welcoming us at STEAM Fest, where we captured community members' memories and experiences at Martin Middle School as they prepared for consolidation with another school community.
Frannie Sanchez at Austin Public Library (APL), who shared a vision for capturing these stories NOW, before school communities transition, and has been coordinating with APL branches across the city to support closing campuses in sharing their oral histories to be archived at Austin History Center. Thank you for sharing a table with us at Winn Elementary School's Butterfly Fest, where we loved listening to students share their stories of the impact the school had on them.

From left to right: Paul Galvan, Gabby Garcia, Jessie Neufeld, Heather Wong, and Kenneth Loyde

Paul Galvan at Galvan Creativeand Kenneth Loyde at NewSchoolCreative, our immediate creative partners, who had the vision to transform these stories into visual media and the experience and talent to make this an opportunity for expressive art.
Special thanks to Gabby Garcia, Vincent Tovar, and Hanna Salmon for being our partners and part of our larger collaborative team in moving this project forward together. Your partnership made it possible for more community members to participate and share their story inclusively.
Last but not least, thank you to the Martin Middle School community members, alumni, staff, and students for welcoming us into your legacy event and trusting us with your stories. We appreciated every memory, story, feeling, and moment you shared, and we are committed to honoring that trust.

The completed work and longer interviews will find a long-term home in an archive dedicated to the oral history of Austin's public schools. We look forward to sharing more from this video storytelling project in the coming months, including a release this Fall. We are honored to be a small part of preserving the lived experiences of our Austin school communities. Stay tuned.

With gratitude,

Heather + Jessie

*We want to acknowledge some of the confusion and lack of clarity around the official list. And we want to acknowledge the ongoing conversations happening within the impacted communities around their future including Blackshear Fine Arts Academy.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE PRESERVATION PROJECT

We are committed to completing this project, but it is currently underfunded.

The Preservation Project runs on community support, and there is no contribution too big or too small. We have raised $3,600 and are looking to fund the full project scope, which is $25,000. Every contribution goes toward documenting these stories. If this work matters to you, we'd be honored to have you contribute. Every contributor will receive an invitation to our viewing of film in the Fall.

We're grateful to Education Austin and Preservation Austin for their continued partnership. We've applied for additional funding through the City of Austin's FY26 Equity Mini Grant. If you're interested in partnering in this work, please send us a note!

ATX116 is an LLC and contributions are not tax-deductible.