What will Warrington do when its school goes away? Create something better, families hope.

The dream of a grassroots community charter school may not be dead after all, if Warrington Middle School Dean Darreyel Laster has his way.

In November, the Escambia County School Board voted to enter into a preliminary educational review agreement with Charter Schools USA.

The agreement would allow the organization to begin observing Warrington Middle, with plans of converting it into a K-8 charter school. The charter transition will allow the school to stay open after several consecutive years of low academic performance.

More on Charter Schools USA: Charter School USA is Warrington School's last chance to stay open. Will the board take it?

Options for Warrington Middle School: Warrington Middle School scores 'D' grade; will close and reopen as a charter school

Each member of the board, except for Laura Edler, voiced support for Charter Schools USA after meeting members of the for-profit organization in person.

Laster is one of the people who had hoped members of the community could lead the new charter school, so the decision to bring in an outside organization initially felt like a defeat. However, he hasn't given up.

He plans to continue with his mission of building a neighborhood charter school, regardless of whether his proposed charter group, edEQUITY, is selected by the board to operate out of the current Warrington Middle facility in January.

"This is a revolution," Laster said. "This is not the end all, be all."

On Tuesday night, Adoration for A New Beginning Church turned into a town hall meeting to engage the Warrington community about the middle school's future.

Among those attending was District 2 School Board Member Paul Fetsko, who said that two charter schools, one run by Charter Schools USA and one run by edEQUITY, could both simultaneously exist.

Both organizations are still in the running to submit their charter applications for the board to approve in January, he said. Whichever one doesn't take over the Warrington Middle property can still exist at another location under different leadership.

The board can vote for the formation of both charter schools, one of the charter schools, or neither, according to Fetsko.

While Laster and the edEQUITY group work on completing the several-hundred-page charter application, he wanted to collect community feedback and ideas in the meantime.

Laster proposes plan to school board: 'God help us if we don't get this one right.' Warrington teachers rally for local charter.

Warrington community speaks out

With Laster's prompting, a roomful of pastors, nurses, parents, law enforcement officers, teachers, counselors and social workers split into groups and put their ideas on paper Tuesday for what a perfect school of their design would look like.

The children would have mentors. Students would choose projects to work on around their interests. They would openly share about their home lives in the homeroom period and fill out daily mental health self-evaluations.

Each community member had their own idea vision of what their "perfect" school would be, but highlighting the non-academic needs of students was a common thread.

Many argued that for the students to learn, their underlying needs must be met first.

Octavia Mickles, a Warrington mother of five children, has seen the challenges local children face at home firsthand as the honorary "team mom" for her son's football team.

She often goes above and beyond. Her groceries are spread thin to feed her own five children, along with over a dozen football players if they need a hot dinner. She offers up space in her home for a safe space to stay the night.

She has had conversations to help a child who was breaking into homes to find food and coaches her son on befriending classmates who are harassed for not having deodorant.

The key to these kids' long-term success is the community taking them under their wing, she said.

"It starts at home," Mickles said. "It takes a neighborhood; it takes a village."

Levon Wright, Warrington Middle School counselor, said one of the greatest concerns he has about Warrington Middle's transition is the number of students who could potentially be bussed to other schools outside of their neighborhood if they do not fit the cap of Charter School USA's proposed K-8 model.

Wright said his team has spent countless hours working on the grassroots approach alongside Laster to come up with a plan that ensures that all 1,200 students zoned for Warrington Middle School can attend school in their own neighborhood if they desire.

"I really want to work with my brothers," he said. "We are here for our kids."

Band director Caleb Lovely said he has also been advocating for the students in board meetings across the state. However, opening a school of their own is starting to seem like the only option.

"If you can't find help, you become the help," Lovely said. "I'm here to build, I'm here to move."

Another Warrington Middle School parent D'Anna Entrikin recalled when she first moved to Pensacola how hesitant her real estate agent was to even show her homes in the Myrtle Grove neighborhood. That was until the Realtor learned that she homeschooled most of her kids.

After her son ended up starting school at Warrington Middle, she met with a school counselor to learn about the children with whom her son spent his day.

She spent hours listening to stories of the deep emotional needs of the students, leading her to believe they needed to try a new approach to meet the students' needs.

"I feel like we're on the cusp of something really important," she said. "I hope we become a blueprint."

To Laster, the solution to the unsatisfactory academic performance from Warrington Middle is creating a new way of learning altogether and redefining the education landscape.

What does the edEQUITY plan look like?

In Laster's community school blueprint, he plans to involve parents and students in creating a school designed to fit the needs of their own neighborhood.

He said the plan would follow a holistic approach built around academics, civic empowerment and social-emotional development.

The end goal would not be to just produce students that are high-test scorers but engaged citizens of their communities that will advocate for themselves and for others.

Parents like Entrikin are supportive of the plan, saying it will work on growing a child's emotional intelligence as well their as their academic intelligence.

Laster said some of the next stages following the town hall are for volunteers to door-knock to grow community support and collect ideas for the new school.

EdEQUITY is seeking community volunteers to help with needs such as grant writing, legal review, meeting spaces and door-knocking.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Warrington Middle parents plan 'perfect' community school