The Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously selected retired Navy Vice Adm. David Brewer to be the next superintendent late Thursday, drawing criticism from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The Board of Education President Marlene Canter acknowledged that Brewer is a “nontraditional choice” to succeed the retiring Roy Romer, but added that she was impressed with Brewers intelligence, leadership and skill sets. Adding that Brewer’s wife is a middle school teacher and his mother was also a teacher.

In a statement, Villaraigosa, who is in Hong Kong on a trade mission, said he was “deeply disappointed that the school board made this decision without the meaningful inclusion of parents, teachers, the Council of Mayors or the broader Los Angeles community.”

Brewer, who retired from the Navy in March, served as the Navy’s vice chief of naval education and training from 1999 to 2001. In 2001, he assumed command of the Military Sealfit Command, which provides ocean transportation of equipment, fuel supplies and ammunition to sustain U.S. forces worldwide, a position he remained in until his retirement.

Assembly Bill 1381, signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month, established a Council of Mayors, which will be composed of the mayors of Los Angeles and the district’s other cities; it gives that council some control over the district during a six-year trial period. The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and other business interests have supported the transfer of control out of the school board’s hands in an effort to improve schools.

The law does not go into effect until Jan. 1 and a suit challenging its constitutionality has been filed by the Board of Education, the League of Women Voters and district parents, students, administrators.