The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s decisions to expand its Head Start program in Wrangell and add licensed child care services for the community are great news for families.

The announcements also are good news for employers looking to hire and for potential employees who need child care before they can leave the house to take a job and earn money for their families.

Tlingit & Haida plans to expand its Head Start program to 30 students, up from the current enrollment limit of 20. The child care program will start with eight openings, possibly expanding to as many as 16 in the future depending on demand for services and the ability to hire sufficient staff.

The regional nonprofit has operated Head Start classrooms across Southeast for several decades, serving 10 communities this past year. Wrangell will be its second day care operation in Southeast.

The expansion of services in Wrangell is made easier by the borough’s decision to lease two unused classrooms at Evergreen Elementary School for Head Start — at no charge, other than utilities. After Head Start moves out of its current quarters across the street from the school, that space will be fixed up for the day care program.

The pieces came together rather quickly, with Tlingit & Haida, the borough and the Wrangell Cooperative Association talking about the community’s need for day care services and possible answers to that need.

Making free space available at the school — already designed for kids — was a big piece of the dominoes falling into place to make this all happen.

“We knew we had extra room at the school,” Mayor Patty Gilbert said. “We moved fast.”

So did Tlingit & Haida. “We saw the need,” said Kayla Tripp, interim director for Head Start at the tribal nonprofit.

Wrangell has long talked about the need for day care services. People have met, compared notes, taken surveys. The coordinated efforts to pull all of this together to actually make it happen are appreciated and will be good for the entire community.