It was a busy August for Head Start staff, parents and volunteers but it all went according to schedule and classes started Tuesday morning, Aug. 26, in new rented space at Evergreen Elementary School.

This year’s other change is that the program is running two classes for 3- to 5-year-olds instead of just the one class in past years, providing more openings for Wrangell kids to enroll in the free program.

Moving into new quarters took a lot of work, said Dawn Welch, one of the two lead teachers at the program operated by the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

“It’s beautiful in here, like for real,” she said in an interview while prepping in the new classrooms a week before school opened.

Painting walls and pipes, adding new coverings on cupboards, moving in furniture and finishing other tasks made for long days, with people staying as late as 11 p.m.

Head Start is using two unused classrooms at Evergreen and is paying for utilities. The borough, which owns the school buildings, is not charging rent on the space.

The program had operated out of a building owned by Tlingit and Haida across the street from Evergreen. The tribal nonprofit plans to renovate that space for a new child care center, Welch said.

“It’s still in the works,” she said, without a definitive timeline. The kitchen needs remodeling, along with other work and state licensing.

Tlingit and Haida officials visiting Wrangell earlier this summer from tribal offices in Juneau said they hope to open the child care center with room for eight children, ages 18 months to 3 years old.

It will be the only licensed child care center in Wrangell, where families often rely on friends and family for day care services. The lack of child care has long plagued working-age parents in Wrangell.

As of late last week, 26 kids had completed the registration process for Head Start, which has room for 30 children with the expansion into two separate classrooms. The program was limited to 20 kids last year.

Welch expects the classes will fill up this week, as more applications are processed.

Anyone interested in enrolling their children into Head Start can go to the website for an application: tlingitandhaida.gov/service/head-start/.

Classes run Tuesdays through Fridays, starting at 7:45 a.m. and letting the kids out at 2:45 p.m.

The program was almost fully staffed last week, awaiting completion of a background check for the final hire, Welch said.

With Welch as lead teacher in one room, Eva Roher will be lead teacher in the other classroom. Roher was a teaching assistant last year.

Nicole Webster and Kelly Buness will be the teaching assistants, and LeAnn Bryner will be the cook for breakfast, lunch and snacks for the children. A cook aide will be added to the staff.

In addition to accepting more children and moving into new space, Head Start will be installing new playground equipment, Welch said. What’s there now “is pretty old and outdated.”

The new equipment has arrived in town and will be installed soon, she said.

Tlingit and Haida operates 12 Head Start classrooms in 10 Southeast communities, with space for close to 200 students.