A miscalculation on salary increases for Clark County School District administrators is delaying schools’ ability to make decisions about budget cuts.

Mike Barton, the district’s chief academic officer, sent principals and administrators an email Monday night alerting them that a problem with retroactive pay increases for fiscal years 2016 and 2017 was under review, along with other “inconsistencies and broader issues” in schools’ strategic budgets, which were released Monday.

“It is recommended that we pause working on the budgets until accurate information is provided,” Barton wrote in the email.

Deputy Superintendent Kim Wooden said the district released an Aug. 28 memo that included ballpark figures for retroactive pay increases for school administrators — some of which were flawed. When the schools received their strategic budgets Monday, however, it became clear that many were overcharged for the retroactive pay increases, she said.

The school district could not provide an estimate of the financial size of the mistake.

Wooden blamed the mistakes on an accounting system that requires manual entry as well as the district’s inexperience with school strategic budgets. The latter is a key aspect of the state-mandated reorganization that’s supposed to give school communities more autonomy over their budgets and decision-making.

“This was only the second time we’ve done school strategic budgets,” she said. “We’re learning every day.”

The announcement delivers a setback to the budgeting process as the district tries to climb out of an estimated $60 million deficit. Principals and school organizational teams were supposed to meet this week and decide how to trim their budgets according to the current fiscal situation.

District officials have said schools’ strategic budgets would need to absorb roughly $18.2 million worth of costs related to collective bargaining agreements.

Wooden said the district is racing to correct the errors and issue new strategic budgets by Friday. Schools will have additional time to review the strategic budgets and decide how to make cuts, she said.

“The vast majority of schools will realize savings with the strategic budgets,” she said, referring to the silver lining of the miscalculation.

Wooden said the delay won’t alter the timeline for addressing the deficit or wind up costing the district more money.

Even so, the Clark County Education Association — which is locked in bitter arbitration battle with the school district and wants more money for teachers’ pay and health care — considers the mistake more proof that district leaders have bungled finances. The union’s executive director, John Vellardita, said the situation “raises more red flags than answers.”

“We think there is a deficit in financial management over there,” he said. “We think there should be an audit.”

School Trustee Chris Garvey said she wasn’t aware of the miscalculation and delay until Wooden sent a memo Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s just really, really important right now that we start getting a handle on good communication and figure out where exactly we lie with our finances,” she said. “I’m hopeful that with all the attention this is getting that we will be able to get our ducks in a row.”

Garvey said she wasn’t surprised an error had occurred, though.

“I was concerned that there weren’t enough supports in place for the strategic budgets,” she said. “Obviously, we’re needing to kind of figure this out.”

School Board President Deanna Wright said she was out of town and declined to comment.