DALLAS - When it comes to math, Dallas Independent School District teachers think their administrators could use a little help.

"Fifty-two million dollars is big bucks," said Aimee Bolender, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the union representing DISD teachers.

They are big bucks the district mistakenly did not budget.

News 8 has learned DISD does not have enough money budgeted for teacher salaries this school year.

Deep inside the monthly financial report released last week under payroll costs is the projected $52,289,297 hole.

"I am not aware of this ever happening at anytime in this school district,” Bolender said. “This is horrendous.”

The district said it underestimated how much it spends on salaries.

What does it mean to Dallas' 11,000 teachers? They fear it may mean no pay increase next year.

DISD said its former finance chief, David Rastellini, and his staff made the mistake. Rastellini abruptly resigned in January to be near his sick sister in San Antonio.

He referred News 8's call back to DISD.

The district is still reeling from several years of questionable financial management, results of a recent audit are overdue; and next month, DISD is asking voters to pass a billion dollar bond referendum.

Now, there is this $52 million projected budget deficit.

Never before, DISD admits, has it had a deficit this large. Despite that, the district does not share the teachers’ alarm.

"We've hired additional teachers in the neighborhood of about 500 to 600 teachers more to the district,” said Jon Dahlander, a DISD spokesman “In addition to that, we underestimated a bit how much it would cost for those teachers.”

DISD said extra revenue can easily cover this mistake. It’s money that - among other things - would have been spent on instructional consultants in classrooms, experts hired to help teachers in Dallas' low performing schools.

Bolender and other teachers are waiting to see how the $52 million error affects them.

For students, it's a cost yet to be calculated.

E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com