District and union leaders in Greeley, Boulder and St. Vrain have yet to hammer out contracts, more than a month after students returned to school.

"We have never had three locals at crisis level in their bargaining this late in the year," Deborah Fallin, spokeswoman for the Colorado Education Association, said Tuesday.

"Crisis level" means an impasse has been declared in negotiations and third-party mediators have stepped in, with little success.

Teachers and administrators in a fourth district, Westminster in Adams County, are still talking but those negotiations are amicable and no impasse has been declared, Fallin said.

St. Vrain Valley teachers and administrators are slated next week for fact-finding, where the two sides will present their arguments to an arbiter who then issues a ruling. That ruling isn't necessarily binding.

In Boulder, mediated talks broke down seven hours into a scheduled two-day meeting and union leaders have filed the required notice with the state labor department that they may take job action.

That includes a strike, though Boulder Valley Education Association President Melissa Tingley has said the notice was intended only "to keep all our options open."

In Greeley, more than 90 percent of teachers rejected the district's "last, best and final offer" made at mediated talks on Sept. 25.

"They very clearly believe that their contract is not being honored," Greeley Education Association President Andi Lee said Tuesday. "They consider it a broken promise."

The district's offer would cover increased medical and retirement costs for teachers, pay more to teachers who earned more college credits and increase hourly pay for non-classroom work from $18 to $25.

It contains no cost-of-living increase and would not cover the annual increases usually given to teachers for another year of experience, known as "steps" on a teacher salary schedule. A step increase equals about 3.75 percent for Greeley teachers.

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