On New Year’s Eve, Melissa Jimenez, an English teacher at Berkeley High School, or BHS, found herself spending six hours writing college letters of recommendation for her students. She wanted to spend time with her family, but because application deadlines were rapidly approaching, she knew she had to keep working. However, thanks to a new agreement between Berkeley Unified School District, or BUSD, and the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, or BFT, teachers will be granted compensation for their time spent writing these letters. This agreement, signed May 23, allows teachers to choose how they prefer to be compensated, and their compensation increases with how many letters they write per year. Options for compensation include being paid through timesheets at a rate of up to 45 minutes per letter, being given one inservice credit hour per letter of recommendation or being granted one day off per ten letters of recommendation. “It used to just be a small number of schools that even acc...