Tom Hanks, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Susan Sarandon, Roy Disney, James Hahn, Johnnie Cochran Jr. and Rupert Murdoch: The Los Angeles Unified School District wants you .

District Superintendent Roy Romer has quietly established a foundation targeting the who's who of Los Angeles elite to raise money for his education reform initiatives.

In addition to the usual suspects -- billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and Univision Chairman Jerry Perenchio -- Romer hopes to recruit a wide range of movers and shakers for the foundation, according to a three-page list of prospective board members obtained by the Daily News.

Other big names on the list include: Bert Boeckmann, owner and chief executive of Galpin Ford in North Hills; Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal; Staples Center developer Ed Roski; and Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks SKG.

Romer said the foundation will serve as a conduit for former alumni who care about the district to become financial supporters.

The LAUSD counts among its alumni a distinguished list of Hollywood stars, such as Dustin Hoffman, who graduated from Los Angeles High School; Sally Field, who graduated from Birmingham High School; and Robert Redford, a Van Nuys High School alumnus.

Launched without public announcement at a spring function at the exclusive California Club, the LAUSD Education Foundation also intends to go after deep-pocket donors, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"Most educational institutions have foundations. LAUSD does not," Romer said in an recent interview. "I thought it was wise to create one. The goal and mission of it is to help supplement the efforts of the district in educating children."

The foundation's primary goal is to attract large grants to launch Romer's initiative to create small learning communities within large schools to provide students with individualized education. The initiative is estimated to cost as much as $4 million per school -- a price tag the financially strapped district cannot afford on its own.

Other programs the LAUSD foundation might support include the Academic Decathlon, arts education and a public-relations program to improve the image of the nation's second-largest school district.

Publicists for Schwarzenegger, Field and Hoffman either did not return phone calls or could not be reached for comment.

So far, according to Diane Pappas, executive director of the foundation and a staff attorney for the LAUSD, the foundation has collected $224,000. District officials would not say what the foundation's fund-raising goal is.

"Fantastic" was Pappas' term for community response to the foundation. Even without any formal fund-raising effort, parents and organizations last year donated $6.7 million to the district.

But internally, the foundation has drawn some criticism from school board members, who have not been updated on its activities.

The foundation board now consists of Romer, Chief Operating Officer Timothy Buresh and former school board President Caprice Young.

While board members support the idea of creating a foundation to benefit the district, they would like to see more accountability.

Without the board's knowledge, the foundation recently hired Kathi Littman, the former head of new school construction, at a cost of $10,000 to work on the superintendent's small-learning-community initiative.

Board member David Tokofsky said when he first asked about Littman's return, district officials denied that she had been rehired. Technically, Littman is an employee of the foundation, not the district.

The district's own code of ethics frowns on the practice of hiring former district employees as consultants at substantially higher pay.

"That does not fly good. That's not a good foundation for a foundation," said Tokofsky.

Ed Burke, chief of staff for west San Fernando Valley school board member Jon Lauritzen, said the district staff did not supply any information about the foundation until he asked.

"If there is any hidden agenda, we don't know," he said. "We would certainly like to open it up."

Romer vehemently denied that he was trying to keep the foundation's activities secret.

"This is something that is in the process of being developed. It will take shape over a period of time. It's not at all a secret. It's a very modest effort."

According to the California Consortium of Education Foundations, the Golden State has about 450 such organizations. Together, they raised more than $30 million for California public schools in 2000, the last year for which figures are available, impacting the lives of nearly 3.5 million children.