EDITORIAL THE TRANSFORMER ADMIRAL BREWER NEEDS TO DRAG LAUSD, AND ITS BOARD, INTO REFORM EFFORT.

BY all accounts, the newly appointed superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Admiral David Brewer III, is a man of tremendous poise, thoughtfulness and integrity -- offering the sort of hands-on, reform-minded leadership the district needs.

Too bad the same can't be said for the school board that hired him.

For the board, the Brewer appointment marks one more petulant effort to resist reform. Yet as unprofessional as the superintendent search process has been, the selection of a consummate professional like Brewer gives reason for hope.

For months, the board denied Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a meaningful role in the superintendent-selection process, even though, come Jan. 1, Brewer will serve at Villaraigosa's pleasure. Then it notified the Mayor's Office after it made its decision -- when Villaraigosa was thousands of miles away on his Asian trade mission.

So much for cooperation.

And Villaraigosa wasn't the only one left out of the process. Unlike previous superintendent searches, the board chose Brewer with zero direct public involvement.

So much for reaching out to the people.

Yet as ungracious as the board has been, Brewer has been a model of good will, making entreaties to the mayor as well as other local leaders. And for all the board's intransigence, Brewer appears serious about changing the way the LAUSD does business.

``To everyone in this community, I say, I am not a reformer, I am a transformer. I aim to transform this district,'' he says.

Just maybe it will take someone with a military background -- Brewer is a retired three-star Navy admiral -- to whip LAUSD forces into shape, including the board.

Board members have succeeded in keeping Villaraigosa out of the selection process, and have gone to court to block legislation giving him partial authority over the district -- a move that could leave them out in the cold, out of touch with what the public wants.

Still, they can't resist cooperation forever, and their man seems to be open to leading the way toward the reconciliation that they have stubbornly resisted.

It's time for the political turf wars and personal battles to stop. We can only hope that Brewer will lead board members to where they've resisted going, and that working with Villaraigosa, they can get to work on the serious business of transforming the LAUSD.

The LAUSD bureaucracy needs to be streamlined, and the savings put into classrooms for more teachers who are better trained and motivated. And parents and the community need to be taken aboard as partners.

All aboard the LAUSD transformation train.