INGLEWOOD — The new school year here has a bit of a radical look to it as the ongoing transformation of public education continues with the opening of the Inner City Education Foundation’s (ICEF) first two schools in the Inglewood Unified School District.

If ever at one point the charter foundation might have been perceived as some kind of threat, that wasn’t the immediate opinion emanating from district officials as they consider the two new campuses.

Around 335 Inglewood students will now be sporting the blue, white and cream crest of the ICEF Inglewood Charter Elementary Academy and the ICEF Inglewood Charter Middle Academy, located on adjacent campuses at 304 E. Spruce Ave.

According to ICEF, the two Inglewood schools and the addition of a new arts campus — the Fernando Pullum Performing Arts High School in Los Angeles — expands its operation to 15 charter schools total in the area.

Founded in 1994, and noted for academic excellence — ICEF’S flagship school, View Park Prep, has now graduated three classes with 100 percent of its graduates accepted to college — ICEF now enrolls more than 4,000 students.

Three of those students belong to parents Roshaun Stovell, a customer service administrator who lives just on the outskirts of Inglewood, and Pastor James Ray, who lives near the two new campuses.

Stovell has a son and daughter, Dorien, 8 and 4-year-old Dharia, at the middle and elementary school, respectively. Both children attended a private kindergarten with Dorien making the switch from a local, public elementary school.

“Dorien has been on the ICEF waiting list since he was 4 and Dharia since she was 2,” said Stovell, whose husband is in the army. “I’m very excited about the program. It’s a new school, but I know they will use the same techniques and procedures to deliver something just as good.”

Ray’s 6-year-old son, James Jr., used to attend Windsor Hills Elementary in Ladera Heights.

“We heard that ICEF is more of an accelerated program designed to push the student and we knew our son was capable of handling it,” said Ray, whose wife works for an aerospace company.

“Right now James loves to read and he’s into music. I’m there at the school and watch the kids and teachers as they relate to each other. I see the enthusiasm, not just on their faces, but with the parents as well.”

ICEF Inglewood Middle Charter Academy Principal Jacques Bordeaux, who has taught at the high school and university level in his 25 years as an educator, certainly believes in his mission.

“I’m extremely confident about our addition to the district. ICEF has [that] track record,” said Bordeaux. “I have 135 kids, 81 sixth graders and 54 seventh graders. The director of the elementary academy has in the region of 200 kids. I handpicked my staff of six. [Of course] I recognize that we are a small, learning community, but our teachers will get to know the kids, their strengths, weaknesses, gifts and talents.”

He added: “Every one of those 135 is going to get the best we can offer every single day. We will prepare them and get them ready to tackle what they are going to have to tackle in high school that will get them ready to apply to the top 100 colleges in the country.”

Bordeaux revealed that the planning for the Inglewood schools has been seven eight years in the making.

“I think the time is ripe to open these schools now, based on what’s going on in the rest of public education where funding is being stripped out of schools and we have to find ways to do more with less.”

As for the sometimes heated debate between the two options, Bordeaux defends parental choice and from his experience cited a “systemic failure” in public education in the last quarter of a century.

“If our charters are providing something that the regular public schools are not, then perhaps those schools should come to us and say what are you doing that is attracting our kids,” he continued. “The charter school movement is all about producing the best practices that can be replicated throughout the education system and we are all about collaborating and sharing.”

Although those sentiments found receptive ears with Inglewood Teachers Association President Aisha Blanchard-Young, she also believes that an “unfair playing field” exists between the two models.

“I think it’s good, healthy competition,” she said. “There are things that we can probably learn to see how we can improve our programs and increase achievement and safety. … But it’s like comparing apples and oranges. Charter schools don’t have the same rules. They can be selective about the students they allow to enter in their schools. We have to meet the needs of all students in their learning abilities or disabilities. However, that’s not an excuse not to rise to the level that they do.”

IUSD board member Trina Williams also doesn’t see the foundation as a threat.

“I don’t see ICEF as a particular benefit in this community,” said Williams. “We certainly have competitive middle schools — we also had 100 percent graduation at our College Prep School. I look at it as parental choice, just like at any other education institution. But we had one of the best school years ever and I think we’re doing very well.”