If you’re a teacher waiting for word on one of Idaho’s new master educator premiums, you’ll have to keep waiting.

Until next week at least.

The State Board of Education hasn’t finished sorting out the first-year premiums. Now, the board has to sift through the applications to make sure all of the materials met the state’s timeframe, State Board spokesman Mike Keckler said Friday afternoon.

To quickly recap: Some 1,400 teachers applied for the premiums — a three-year, $4,000-a-year bonus designed to reward Idaho’s highest performing veteran educators. Applicants had to submit detailed portfolios to the State Board, a task that took some teachers up to 120 hours to complete. The applications were due in early July, and the State Board had hoped to award the premiums by Sept. 1.

But the process has run into delays. Most recently, about 300 of the applications went to a tiebreaker of sorts — after one reviewer recommended a premium and a second did not. The State Board sent those applications out for a third veteran teacher for a final review.

On Sept. 12, Keckler said he believed the State Board was about a week away from awarding the premiums.