When the school bell rings next month heralding the start of a new school year, South Los Angeles will have its first public performing arts high school. It will be like the movie and TV show “Fame” has come to life in the neighborhood.

Enrollment is under way for the Fernando Pullum Performing Arts High School, which will open Sept. 9 in temporary quarters at Paradise Baptist Church, 5100 S. Broadway.

The performing arts school is the latest of the 15 public charter schools operated for the past 10 years by the Inner City Education Foundation, an organization whose mission is to establish high-achieving schools within the confines of South and Central Los Angeles. ICEF’s flagstaff school is the esteemed View Park Prep High School, which has had three graduating classes since its existence, of which 100 percent of its students graduated and 100 percent of its graduates are going to college.

ICEF is adding to its mix of rigorous academically focused elementary, middle and high schools, its new Fernando Pullum Performing Arts High School to give students the opportunity to study instrumental music, vocal music, dance and theater, as well as pursue their college preparatory curriculum.

Fernando Pullum, the executive director of performing arts for all ICEF schools, and the new school’s namesake, disabused me of my vision of “Fame” teenagers. “No,” he laughed. “We won’t have kids singing and dancing on desks as in the popular portrayal of performing arts schools. Our students will still have a college prep curriculum to meet, but they will also be required to have formal instruction and participation in one of the four performing arts disciplines we provide.”

Germaine DeCree, principal of Pullum, pointed out that budget cuts in the Los Angeles Unified School District have ravaged arts education causing the elimination of such programs for Southland children. “Children can go through all their education without being exposed to the arts at all,” DeCree said.

Even without the performing arts school, all the ICEF schools currently include a performing arts element — much like the LAUSD schools did back in the good old days when public schools had student bands and orchestras and choirs and glee clubs and dance troupes and student theater productions.

“Our students are given musical instruments and are taught to play them, not just by our teachers, but by master teachers we bring in,” DeCree said. “And they have the opportunity to work in their community. One of the things we take pride in is that our students teach other students in the community. As they learn, then they teach.”

DeCree, a Los Angeles native, has been an educator for 11 years, having taught in the LAUSD and at the Valley’s prestigious private school, Campbell Hall. She is a national speaker on equity and justice in schools and a national diversity facilitator.

The ICEF Schools band is a powerhouse when it comes to community outreach. The kids regularly play at convalescent homes, and so far this year it has played in a Fourth of July parade in Colorado, for a wedding in New York and a jazz club in Barcelona, Spain. The band performed in Brazil last year. (I wonder if they need more adult chaperones?) The ICEF Schools’ theatre arts students staged “The Wiz,” for which they received two NAACP Theatre Award nominations this year. And they’ve done all of this and more before opening the performing arts school!

Pullum, a busy professional trumpeteer, was the band director at Washington High School for 22 years. He has won many awards over the years and many of his students have performed with musical greats, such as Al Jarreau, Lional Hampton, Stevie Wonder, etc.

“I believe that kids should be able to get arts education in their on community,” Pullum said. “If they have to get on the bus and go some place else to get it, it lowers their self-esteem. I have been trying to build this for a long time.

“It’s about art, yes, but I’m using art to save people’s lives. I want to have the best performing arts school in the world. I know we’re capable of it. We are excited and we want the world to know we have something great to offer — right here in our community.”

The Pullum High School for the Performing Arts is opening next month with only ninth and 10th graders and is seeking to enroll 100 students in each of the two grades. Auditions will not be required for admission.

“We realize that most of our children have not been exposed to the arts, so we will take any student who is interested in pursuing any of the four disciplines and we will work with them to help them achieve their potential. The only requirement is that the student is prepared to work hard and be disciplined,” Pullum said. “Our goal is to prepare our students to become artists — in front of the camera or behind the camera or in the office.”

The performing arts high school will be operated in partnership with UCLA, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Creative Artist Agency, the Grammy Foundation and the Thelonious Monk Institute.

Enrollment is open to ninth and 10th graders from anywhere in the city. Parents should pick up an enrollment packet from the school site, 5100 S. Broadway, or from the ICEF office at 5150 Goldleaf Circle, Suite 401 or call (323) 290-6914.

Break a leg!