The school board voted last week to raise the pay for substitute teachers by $1 an hour, to $17. Though that’s short of commensurate with the responsibilities for the classroom job, at least it’s an acknowledgement that substitutes were overdue for a raise.

“I know it’s not a big raise, but it’s what we can afford to do this year,” Schools Superintendent Joshua Garrett has explained.

No question that school district finances are tight. Even with this year’s increase in state funding, the district still is far short of balancing its revenues with expenses and continues to live off its reserves. It knows that is not sustainable, and the school board is considering what it can do in the future to balance its budget.

Those long-term decisions will be hard for the board and hard on students and the community.

Yet that does not mean the district should ignore immediate spending needs, particularly the ones that can directly affect students. Such as the lack of an activities director for the schools.

Students and their parents know the value of extracurricular activities, whether sports, music, arts, technology programs and competition. Even more so in small communities like Wrangell, student activities are an important part of growing up, expanding student outlooks and meeting new people.

Organizing all those activities is an incredibly busy job. Arranging travel, determining eligibility, coordinating all of the pieces so that everyone is at the right place at the right time — and then rearranging everything when the weather gets in the way.

The school district activities director is not a staff position; it is a school year contract that pays $10,000. On an hourly basis for eight months of the school year, the pay is far from adequate.

Which might explain why the job was still vacant as of the start of school last week. The next activities director will be the sixth person in the job going back to the 2021-2022 school year. Such high turnover is not good for the district, students or parents.

It’s hard to say the school district should spend more money, but this is one of those cases where spending a little more might be the best move. Even with a raise, the job will be hard to fill. But it needs to be filled, and a more honest level of pay could help.