In a third day of staged "sickouts" yesterday, 269 teachers failed to show up at eight Boulder Valley schools in a massive protest against a proposed 1 percent raise, good for one year, that teachers say amounts to a pay cut once they take inflation into consideration. That's according to Boulder's Daily Camera, which reports that teachers have been picketing outside schools all week as school district officials and union representatives found themselves at odds after contract negotiations failed about a week ago. Teachers say the school district should provide a cost-of-living increase of at least 4.9 percent--the rate of inflation for the past year plus 1 percent, writes The Denver Post. Similar tensions are also being felt in Greeley-Evans School District 6, according to the Greeley Tribune, which reports that negotiations between teachers and officials have hit an impasse, leading to talks with a federal mediator. Likewise, in the St. Vrain Valley School District, teachers are arguing about salaries and compensation, wanting their base pay of $32,021 a year increased, writes the Longmont Times-Call.