It’s an old management allegory that may be applicable to school boards.

The urgent diverts attention from the essential.

When I was U.S. Maritime Administrator the urgent was to prepare congressional testimony, settle dock workers’ strikes, and ship grain to India.

But such urgent tasks kept me from the essential: improvements in the efficiency of our merchant marine and subsidy policy.

The school board knows what’s urgent. But what’s essential in 21st century K-12 education?

Bob Dylan’s song title said it all: “No Time to Think.”

Senator Barry Goldwater had a similar problem. As the Senator was walking to the stage to speak a reporter asked him what he thought about a current issue. Goldwater responded, “I can’t answer that now. I don’t have time to think, I’m talking.”

What to do?

Lewis Thomas, in his book The Lives of a Cell, notes among other things that it is possible to think of the beehive, rather than the individual bee, as the living organism.

The bees can be thought of as its cells.

It’s also possible to think of a human organization as an organism, the  people as cells. And if it’s difficult for them to focus on draining swamps, it’s virtually impossible for them to think up options like building bridges or creating wetlands parks.

Similarly, most of the cells in our bodies have nothing to do with thinking. Even our brain cells.

Thinking about thinking is changing (theories about areas of the brain vs. neuron connections).

But all agree there’s a lot up there besides intellect. Motor movements. Control of eating, drinking, temperature regulation, and sleep. Breathing and blood pressure. And that without a cerebral cortex there would be little thinking.

An organization is similar. It’s unrealistic to expect someone whose days are filled with responsibilities for “doing” to be thinking about alternatives and policy. School board members are no exception.

What we needed at Maritime was “an institutional cerebral cortex.” We called it the “Office of Policy and Plans.” At the FCC the reverse: “Office of Plans and Policy.” An early Air Force effort became today’s “RAND Corporation” (short for “research and development,” but in fact a policy shop).

So far so good. But the problem in many organizations is that the board or CEO isn’t really interested. Policy wonks plans aren’t used. The organization waddles into the tar pits of ignorance.

My response at Maritime was to make policy a top priority: an arbitrary 30 percent of my time spent with that office.

With responsibility for military sea lift during the mid-1960s it was necessary to set up shop in Saigon and meet with General Westmoreland. I asked if we could try some innovations.

He smiled, “If you can get any good out of this war, be my guest.”

And so Maritime accelerated research and development of containerization, surface effect ships, hydrofoils – among other things.

Maybe Thomas’ beehive analogy is not apt for our school district.

We have bright and innovative teachers and administrators with enough site-based authority to try pilot projects.

But the fact remains that even our best and brightest often find themselves fighting off the alligators rather than draining the swamp or thinking of alternatives.

Does our school board need an institutional cerebral cortex? And, if so, what form should it take?

Board member Lauren Reece is taking the lead at board meetings in providing what the board calls its “education news.” What are the other 200 countries and 15,000 U.S. school districts doing that we might find useful?

We have curriculum coordinators, teachers’ in-service events, prep time, and citizen advisory committees for the superintendent and board.

All have been invited to contribute information and ideas for the board’s consideration.

Maybe that’s enough. Maybe all we need is some modest coordination and reporting of what is already going on. Maybe someone at the UI College of Education would be willing to take on the assignment.

Maybe we need to hire somebody.

The “shoemaker’s children” phenomenon is widespread.

(“The shoemaker’s children have no shoes.” The lawyer without a will. The doctor without a checkup.)

But it seems somehow especially ironic when applied to an educational organization like a school board.

When any organization’s employees are up to their hips in alligators there best be someone, somewhere, functioning as an institutional cerebral cortex.

Nicholas Johnson is a member of the Iowa City School Board.