Definitely go mid-week.

I'd start with a "learn to ski" group lesson, and do that until you can get down the bunny hill without falling (your first day or two you will fall A LOT, don't let that discourage you) and are comfortable getting on/off the lift.

Once you have the bare basics down I'd switch to private lessons. Obviously more expensive but when you're a beginner, group lessons suck. There's always one or two people that shouldn't be in your group and they will take all the instructor's attention when they fall down and need help getting up every 10 feet.

As to where to go: when you're starting out, anywhere that has decent snow is fine. This time of year you'll want to read some forum posts to see how conditions are. For example, we just had a deep freeze, last few days we're in the 50s, it's going to get cold again later next week...to me that says any local mountains will be a sheet of ice and I wouldn't bother going. You won't always have great snow, but you want to avoid the sheet of ice because that will immediately make you hate skiing.

Regarding lessons, every mountain will have "learn to ski", group lessons, and private lessons. You'll want to book these online ahead of time.

If you go a few times and decide you like and are good enough to get off the bunny hill I'd strongly encourage you to find some ski pals. Skiing alone is not a good idea, especially for beginners. Bad shit can happen and you'll want a pal to get help if you need it.

And a minor correction: nobody calls it a "ski range". Call it "ski mountain" or just "mountain", or "ski slope" or just "slopes" 😎.

Good luck to you, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!