The analytical report presented Monday to Butler School Board gives the impression that certain aspects of the school bus business are a lot like rocket science.

Then again, sometimes rocket science can take a stupid turn. Remember the aborted Apollo 13 moon landing in 1970? The cause was a short circuit in a piece of wire worth about 50 cents.

The school board and what’s left of our administration should keep in mind that the public they serve isn’t so much caught up in the complexities of state reimbursement formulas or chassis age versus coach age — those things are important and need to be explained and reported — as they are the integrity and honesty of the people in charge of our children’s education, as well as their parents’ and grandparents’ education tax dollars.

So, bear with the brief explanations:

Specialists from the Armstrong Indiana Intermediate Unit (ARIN IU), using mathematical formulas based on the contract between Butler School District and its transportation contractor, Valley Lines of Freeport, concluded that Valley Lines had provided 109 substandard buses since 2008.

ARIN representative Greg Coy said the district could assess a penalty of $1.93 million for the violations, according to his findings.

That’s not to say the buses were in violation of any state regulations; rather, they were not compliant with the contractual agreements, most notably that no chassis be more than 10 years old; and no replacement bus have less seating capacity than the bus it replaced.

It can get a little murky when other issues come into play, starting with the way buses are made. Bus manufacturers buy the bare chassis from an existing automaker, then assemble the body of the bus onto the chassis. The result might be a bus built on a 2016 chassis and marketed as a “2018” model by the bus manufacturer. In some ways it’s like auto manufacturers bringing out next year’s models in August. That’s why the contract uses the word “chassis.” It’s also why the Butler Eagle uses “chassis” when reporting about the school bus issue.

Age of the chassis is one of several variables factored into a formula by which the state reimburses public school districts for transportation costs. Seating capacity is another. In general, the newer the bus, the greater the reimbursement.

It would be a simple thing to blame any discrepancy or misunderstanding on the contractor, except the conditions appear to have persisted for at least seven years — under the leadership of different school boards and superintendents. Did no one in the administration think it prudent to maintain and occasionally check a list of VIN numbers for Valley Lines’ bus chassis?

Taken as an isolated incident, the public might give the district the benefit of the doubt. But the revelation of a multitude of alleged transportation contract violations, taken in concert with the recent water scandal at Summit Elementary School, and a pattern of neglectful oversight begins to emerge.

Take one more step in this direction — the people endure year after year of school budget and property tax increases, and they grow wear of what they perceive as an arrogant disregard for their individual financial struggles.

But take heart.

The transportation fiasco has been exposed. The lead contamination and cover-up have been exposed.

Also being exposed, we hope, is a chronic attitude of unbridled spending. While it didn’t get much attention Monday night, a proposal to authorize an increase in the 2017-18 property tax above the index was rejected by the board’s finance committee.

That’s a noteworthy and appreciated effort. Simple to understand, too.