Soapbox: Homecoming challenge

High schools throughout the area will be celebrating homecomings over the next couple of weeks, and that means all administrations will be on full alert for excessive mischief, pranks or hazing gone too far or friction between schools that gets out of hand. There's always some tension during this particular week, and that's unfortunate. Let's hope we have an incident-free homecoming season at all our high schools. Call it The 2007 Homecoming Challenge. The past and present come together to make homecoming a special time every year, and this feel-good experience doesn't need any unnecessary disruptions.

Just like a zillion other teen girls

There are all kinds of things that people could -- and will -- say about Dawn Sherman, daughter of well-known atheist Rob Sherman, and her opinion that her school's homecoming week theme songs should be secular. But the Buffalo Grove freshman definitely struck a universal chord when she said, "Really, the last thing I want to be is just like my father."

This year, assignment done on time

Results of last school year's standardized test scores for Illinois students are not uniformly great, which merits its own commentary some day soon. But at least the scores have been reported to local school authorities. And that, for the Illinois State Board of Education, is an achievement of sorts. Last year, problem after problem resulted in the ISBE reporting results months behind schedule, rendering the information all but useless for local districts, which use each year's scores to fine tune teaching strategies.

History kept alive

There was nothing remotely romantic about the war that over four years pitted American against American in close and devastating combat and that killed, through combat and other causes, more than 600,000 soldiers. Yet, the Civil War remains one of our nation's most important historic chapters, one that must be understood and appreciated by each new generation. Toward that end, the Lake Villa Historical Society's annual Civil War Weekend, which last week attracted hundreds of re-enactors and history buffs, performs a real service by helping new generations understand the war and all it meant.

Swimming in cash next year?

When a municipality or park district counts on a big recreation investment to generate a certain sum of money and then that revenue fails to materialize -- that's a problem. That's happened in several suburban communities. Fortunately, that does not seem to be the case so far in Hawthorn Woods. The village's new aquatic center in its inaugural summer did bring in far less cash through daily passes than projected. But village Finance Director Nancy Caine attributes that mostly to a three- week delay in the pool's opening. A full season next year will give the village a better picture, but here's hoping that the late opening was the only culprit.

No excuse for being unaware

It's too early to judge the merits -- or lack thereof -- of specific tax questions that voters will see on their Feb. 5 primary ballots. But this much is clear in Big Hollow Elementary District 38. After a series of rejected tax requests; after the school board has scraped by year after year on tax-anticipation warrants; after district authorities have tried to sell land to raise money; after parents howled at proposed program cuts in the face of growing deficits; nobody -- nobody -- in the district should declare at voting time that they didn't realize the district has been having financial problems.