The water scandal at Summit Elementary School remains stirred up and cloudy, with no signs of clearing or settling anytime soon.

The school is closed indefinitely. Plans are under way to move all operations to the Broad Street School, six miles away in Butler. Broad Street was mothballed and put up for sale at the end of the 2014-15 school year in a consolidation of Butler School District.

It has been widely reported that two ongoing investigations will attempt to assign criminal responsibility for decisions or lack of action that exposed children and school staff to potentially harmful concentrations of lead, copper and other substances. Both investigations — one by the Pennsylvania State Police, the other by an independent counsel — could result in criminal charges.

The expenses of damage control have not been discussed yet. Expenses need to be discussed, and soon.

The expenses will be voluminous, beginning with the hiring of water consulting engineers Gannett Fleming and medical experts from Butler Health System. Other expenses range from hiring an interim water operator and project coordinator to relocating an entire school’s desks, books and supplies in a matter of days. There are fines and fees to be paid to the state Department of Environmental Protection, plus the expense of conducting blood tests on hundreds of students.

Solicitor Tom King assures the Butler Eagle that Butler School District is flagging every expense and coding every bill related to the water crisis. The district has notified its insurance carriers that there likely will be a claim against the district’s errors and omissions and general liability policies.

But there are still plenty of unknowns at this point. The unknowns include whether the investigation being conducted by independent counsel Michael Witherall will include a detailed assessment of financial responsibility.

There’s no guarantee the district’s insurance carriers will agree to pay all or even part of the claims — there’s nothing to prevent the insurers from conducting their own investigation or contesting the district’s claims in court. It’s also unknown whether the claims might exceed any coverage ceiling that exists for either policy.

Any uncovered expenses might become the responsibility of the district — which means, the district’s tax-paying residents.

It’s a sobering thought. In the immediate fallout of a crisis, things must be done immediately for the protection of the public, especially in a public setting like an elementary school. Expense becomes a secondary concern.

But expense can’t remain a secondary concern indefinitely — and we need to keep the thought in mind as this crisis continues to unfold.