As a new school year begins, it brings with it both the old and the new. The same old hallways, the familiar faces of classmates we’ve known since preschool and the yearly reading of the syllabuses of which the rules are now engraved into our minds forever. On the other hand, there are the new things: seniors will no longer be graduating in a tightly packed 103° gym, the roof will finally be watertight and the big bags that girls constantly tote around are now a big no-no.  That’s where we come in, your loyal Krier staff: bringing you the latest happenings and breaking news.

For the last 37 years, the Kaneland Krier has operated as a Tinker paper, which means we operate as an open student forum. Thanks to a board decision last May, this will be the first year since 1994 that our policy and our practice match: we once again have an official board policy declaring us a Tinker paper, and we take the full responsibility that comes along with it.

Following the tradition and routine of our September editorial, we, the Krier editorial board, would like to refresh your memories about our ethics, rights, responsibilities and objectives.

As always, our all-student staff produces our newsmagazine without any prior administrative review and completely on campus, all with our own advertising dollars. We assure you that we’ll maintain our high journalistic values and principles, bringing responsible and honest reporting to the table. Just like in previous years, we remain student-researched, student-reported, student-developed and student-published.

Since we have full Tinker rights, any concerns or complaints fall directly on our own shoulders and not those of Kaneland High School. We keep ourselves in check by maintaining a strict code of ethics that we review, revise and improve every single year.

While all of that stays the same, we have a few new goals and tweaks for this year that we hope will further improve the quality of the paper.  Whether it’s in a story, a poll, a sidebar or a photo, our goal is to get every student into the Krier. We encourage you to send in letters with your opinions and feedback, or submit questions for our new advice column, Ask Edi.

With your feedback comes the responsibility of quoting you correctly. We want it exactly as you said it to our faces, and we guarantee that’s the way it will appear.

Another goal is to use our space more wisely; we’re going to take advantage of every square inch that we’re given, and fill it with newsworthy material. We want all of that material–including our editorials–to apply directly to you, the students. This year, we’re aiming to pick much more interesting topics that you’ll truly enjoy reading about.

That’s what we’re trying to do this year: involve our readers as much as we possibly can. You’re always welcome to come by room B109 or e-mail us a letter or comment at [email protected]. We encourage letters and feedback, which will be published so long as they are not libelous, obscene or disruptive.