The James Logan Courier

By Rick LaPlante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer

The Board of Education on Tuesday night approved the 2007-08 budget and multi-year projections for 2008-09 and 2009-10.

The $105.1 million budget for 2007-08 reflects the realities of declining enrollment – it is expected that about 200 fewer students will be enrolled in the fall than this year, equating to approximately $1.1 million less in state revenue. Salaries and benefits account for 95 percent of the unrestricted general fund (85 percent is desirable). A 4.53 cost-of-living adjustment will be passed through to employees, per the District’s multi-year agreements with the New Haven Teachers Association, California School Employees Association and New Haven Administrators Association.

By Faiza Elmasry, VOA News
Washington DC

In Remember Me to Lebanon: Stories of Lebanese Women in America, Evelyn Shakir explores the life and identity of second and third generation Lebanese American women.

Shakir, a literature professor and daughter of Christian Lebanese immigrants, draws on current events and her cultural heritage in her writing.

Although the characters in her first collection of short stories are fictional, Shakir says they were inspired by women she knew. "There is no one on one correspondence between people I knew and the characters in the stories. But some of them certainly were inspired specially by older women I knew when I was a child."