The Blackshear Elementary School community will celebrate the school's 135th anniversary Feb. 13.

The historic campus is Austin ISD's first fine arts school in which students participate in dance, theatre and music programming twice a week.

The history: After being founded as School No. 3 in 1891, Blackshear Elementary became know as the Gregorytown School. The Gregorytown community was a freedom colony settled by formerly enslaved people amid the Jim Crow and Reconstruction eras following emancipation in Texas, according to the school's homecoming website. Blackshear is one of only a few remaining freedom colony schools still open today.

Something to note: Next school year, AISD will close Oak Springs Elementary and relocate those students to Blackshear. Superintendent Matias Segura is expected to decide whether students will remain at Blackshear or relocate to the modernized $47.6 million Oak Springs campus once it is complete.

Get involved: Parents and community members interested in attending Blackshear's 135th anniversary celebration Feb. 13 may RSVP here. The event is still in the planning stages, according to the website.

Austin travelers will soon have access to nonstop flights to the Cayman Islands.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is partnering with Cayman Airways to offer a seasonal summer service.

What you need to know: Flights will depart weekly on Sundays, May 24 through Aug. 9.

• Austin to Grand Cayman: departs at 12:45 p.m. and arrives in Grand Cayman at 3:45 p.m.
• Grand Cayman to Austin: departs at 8:15 a.m. and arrives in Austin at 11:45 a.m.

Quartz and ceramic component manufacturer LTD Material LLC was awarded $1 million in state semiconductor investment funds to support its $25 million expansion in Austin, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Jan. 29.

LTD Material has two locations in the city, and in 2023 broke ground on a new 88,000-square-foot manufacturing and research facility next to its existing fabrication plant. The site will increase the company's capacity to produce high-purity quartz parts deemed "essential" for semiconductor manufacturing and wafer fabrication, according to Abbott's office, and create 40 jobs.

The $1 million award is provided through the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund, or TSIF, established under the 2023 Texas CHIPS Act enacted to incentivize semiconductor research and manufacturing statewide.

The LTD Material expansion is the latest TSIF recipient in Central Texas, where millions of dollars have been directed under the state CHIPS Act since 2023. This month, other regional semiconductor grant awards included a Round Rock component manufacturer and Williamson County technician training center.