The Preservation Project

Our name is ATX116 because it signifies the connection of all 116 campuses in one AISD.

To the closing schools, Barrington, Becker, Dawson, Oak Springs*, Ridgetop, Sunset Valley, and Widén elementary schools, along with Winn Montessori and Bedichek and Martin** middle schools and International High School: You will always be part of our larger story and the web of public education in 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 would change the name in light of the recent closures, and our response is "no" — because our story marks a moment in time in Austin's larger history. What is happening now matters. Future communities will look back on this moment to learn from it. One participant named the stakes clearly: a responsibility to “preserve at all costs”. Our advocacy goes on. We keep showing up.

*We want to acknowledge 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.

**See note above

One project we are working on is one we lovingly call The Preservation Project, in partnership with Martin Middle School. Thank you to our partners and collaborators for making this vision a reality. Recording is wrapped. Editing is underway. We'll be releasing clips of stories as they come together, so check back often.

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.

Thank you to Gail Buhler at Education Austin for your in-kind support — we deeply appreciate it, especially as you are simultaneously advocating for our teachers and students. 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.

We want to thank 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. 

We want to thank 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

And much gratitude to Paul Galvan at Galvan Creative and 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.

Shorter clips will be released and live on our website at www.atx116.org, and the 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