This Philly elementary school is in poor condition. Community members worry it will be targeted for closure — again.

When Andrea Kohn began teaching at Sheppard Elementary, people warned her about the school in West Kensington.

“They told me, ‘Don’t get used to Sheppard, because they’re going to close it,’” said Kohn.

That was 1993. Kohn built a career at the Philadelphia School District K-4 anyway, withstanding multiple attempts to close a school that she and others say is a miracle: a small, well-functioning hub in the community, a school that’s improving academically, a place that wraps its arms around students and families, and where staff stay for decades.

» READ MORE: Philly school district leaders are identifying schools to close. Here’s a look at the data that will inform those decisions.

With the school board a few months from approving a facilities master plan that officials say will include more closures, the Sheppard community is on high alert.

City public schools have nearly 70,000 empty seats, and many buildings are in poor condition. Sheppard last year educated 123 students in a building district officials say has room for 439 — it’s just 28% full — and the building is in “unsatisfactory” shape. Sheppard has no camera system and no playground. It has neither air-conditioning nor adequate electric service to support it.

The school also earned a ”poor" district rating for program alignment, a measure of whether the school building can support programs such as prekindergarten, and has dedicated spaces for physical education, art, and music.

Christina Clark, a district spokesperson, said officials encourage continued engagement in the facilities process “as the district works towards presenting a plan that maximizes use of school buildings and student rostering to provide more equitable prekindergarten opportunities, rigorous academic offerings, access to high-quality arts, music, physical education, and career and technical education opportunities, recognizing that many of the district’s aging and unequal facilities are under enrolled or over enrolled.”

But Sheppard staff have been attending district facilities meetings in droves, making a case for why their school should stay open.

District officials have stressed that no decisions have been made about which schools could close and which will get new buildings, major renovations, or be ordered to relocate to existing buildings that have room for another school. A list of recommendations is expected this fall, with a final school board vote before the end of the year.

» READ MORE: From 2012: In West Kensington, a vibrant school community faces closing

At a July meeting at Julia de Burgos Elementary, less than a mile away from Sheppard in North Philadelphia, a group of Sheppard supporters questioned the district’s data, and said numbers cannot describe the value of a school to a community, especially one as distressed as Kensington.

“Don’t forget us,” said Keely Gray, a Sheppard first-grade teacher, “because we’re not going away.”

Enrollment in Philadelphia’s traditional public schools has generally been slipping since 1997, when the first charter schools opened. But Sheppard’s declining enrollment was hastened further by the district itself, staff say.

When Kohn began her career at Sheppard 30-plus years ago, there were three or four sections of each grade. Now, there’s just one class per grade.

“The district itself took our catchment area when they built de Burgos and Hunter; that’s nothing we can control,” said Melissa Achuff, a longtime Sheppard teacher, speaking about nearby, newer, and bigger schools built in 2002 and 2004, respectively. “It’s nothing we can control.”

Compounding the problem is a lack of a feeder preschool; a nearby program shut a few years back.

“We’ve asked to add fifth grade, and we’ve asked to have a pre-K,” said Achuff. “Give us more students.”

But, those on the inside say, small size is a big part of what makes Sheppard shine. Sheppard students generally have complicated lives; the surrounding neighborhood is marred by an active drug trade, gun violence, and trauma.

“The kids are getting more attention, and they need it,” said Gray, whose class usually hovers around 23 students. “We all know every single kid in the school, there’s a sense of community and family, and every kid feels safe and we’re able to make academic progress. A lot of people would love to have their kids in that small of a school, to have those small classes.”

Sheppard isn’t Marian Nasuti’s only school — she’s a district psychologist who works in multiple district schools. But Sheppard is close to her heart, in part because its small size mean every child is seen.

“Our kids do not fall through the cracks — reading issues, behavioral issues, anything, I go to other schools and it’s not like that,” Nasuti said.

One in four Sheppard students is an English language learner; when fears among some immigrant parents spiked this winter over possible immigration arrests, a number of families kept their children out of school. Some were preparing to unenroll their children.

But Sheppard staff rallied, said Susan Murphy, the school nurse. They explained that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents weren’t allowed into schools, and answered every question people had.

“We got those families back — got their trust, got their anxiety levels down,” Murphy said. “Kids that were actively being unenrolled, but we used the relationships that we’ve built. We told them, ‘We’ve got your back.’”

Natasha Delgado is well aware of the possibility that Sheppard could land on a school closing list. Her daughter is about to enter second grade there, and she said she’s bracing herself.

“If they do close Sheppard, I’m going to end up homeschooling her,” said Delgado.

Delgado doesn’t have a car, and she wouldn’t be comfortable walking her daughter to a school that’s farther from home, she said.

“It’s not the best neighborhood, but we know that our kids are safe at Sheppard,” said Delgado. “It’s just a great school — all the teachers, they give her hugs and they care about her. They’re all part of our community, and that’s so beneficial. I don’t want her at a bigger school.”

Erica Santos agrees. Sheppard has educated generations of her family — she attended, as did her son, and now, her daughter is a rising second grader.

Santos works two jobs, and relies on her father, who lives down the street from Sheppard, to get her daughter to school. She’s not sure what would happen if Sheppard were to close. And she doesn’t like the idea of losing an anchor in a community that very much needs it, Santos said.

“My daughter is doing so good at Sheppard,“ she said.

In a cash-strapped district with billions of capital projects needs, making a case for a small elementary school could be a tough sell, the Sheppard community understands. But officials have said they will weigh something called a “neighborhood vulnerability score” in the mix — a measure of adverse factors like poverty and prior school closings.

Sheppard’s vulnerability, then could help the school community stay afloat.

Parents and staff are banking on it.

But Amy Devlin, another Sheppard teacher, is anxious about what the next few months will bring — officials have said they’ll announce facilities recommendations this fall, with a final school board vote set for the end of the year.

“If you close the doors on Sheppard, it’s like you’re closing the doors on our kids,” Devlin said.