When last year’s CPS budget cuts affected Coonley Elementary, parents gave money to the school to make up the difference.

“The parents were able to fundraise and bring in a lot of the money that was cut,” Coonley parent, Jay Annadurai, said. As a result, Coonley, located in the North Center neighborhood, retained all programs.

But for schools like William Penn Elementary, where 99 percent of the population lives in low-income households, fundraising is not an option.

“To some of the children, we’re all they have,” Penn Elementary Assistant Principal Romeldia Salter said. “We’re all the consistency they have. We’re the discipline they have.”

Last year, Chicago Public Schools put the North Lawndale school on the chopping block, but with 30 percent of the students having special needs, the community fought to keep Penn alive.

“You work with the children to give them a better life,” Salter said, sitting in her office that doubles as the conference and copier room. “But this school is not for the faint of heart.”

This year, Penn elementary opened their doors to 403 students, but with limited funding, they had to close their music program in addition to their already limited amenities.

The front office’s coffee station sits on a table in the broom-closet sized sink room. A male student receives his shots in the waiting area of the female bathroom because there is not a nurse’s station.

According to Slater, the school can only staff one counselor and one case worker, which is an “enormous” caseload for a school serving special needs.

The school also faces security risks because they only have one staffed security guard to cover Penn’s five entrances.

In addition to the silent music room or lack of privacy for student medical care, Penn needs a safe passage because, according to Slater, students as young as six years old walk to school through gang lines.

Schools with a safe passage have adult escorts supervising students walking through a marked path as a way to curb crime and endangerment in neighborhoods. As reported by CBS, the program began this year after CPS closed “nearly 50 schools, forcing hundreds of students to walk a new and often, dangerous route.”

With Penn’s location of 16th Street and South Avers Avenue, half of the school’s attendance boundary extends into known Vice Lords territory between 16th Street and West Ogden Avenue.

According to Slater, Penn, which shares the four-story building with KIPP Charter School, did not receive any money from CPS for a safe passage despite its proximity to Chicago’s second oldest and largest gang, because it was not considered an official welcoming school.

However, Penn is an accepting school. When Henson Elementary closed last year, CPS intended for students to attend their designated welcoming school, Hughes Elementary. Yet according to the Tribune, “15 Henson students enrolled at Hughes while nearly double that went to Penn.”

Penn accepted a total of 45 students from closed North Lawndale schools and does not have a safe passage whereas Hughes Elementary, a school with 334 students located one mile west of Penn, is funded for the program.

“Every student regardless of where they live in the city deserves to have a quality education in a quality school,” DePaul Elementary Education Professor Gloria Alter said in an email.

To combat their lack of safe passage, Penn’s principals, teachers and staff are trying to find volunteers to escort students to and from schools. For now, Slater and the Penn staff walk students home themselves.

“I’ll walk some of them three, four blocks. They don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t ever want to present the air that ‘I need to protect you.’ I’m just walking with you, and we’re talking about what you’re going to do on the weekend,” Slater said.

Both she and Principal Dr. Moore-Ollie grew up in North Lawndale. They strive to make a presence in the community. They want the neighborhood to know who they are and vice versa.

With the economic recovery, Slater believes that the community and the school “has hope again” and welcomes students who wish to learn. But with the CPS budget cuts, it has become more difficult to support Penn students’ education and safety. Like the leaky sink in the lady’s restroom, Slater sees funds “trickling” in.