Officials with the Butler School District say their latest data suggest an increase of only 1 percent in the number of school bus incidents during the first months of the disctrict consolidation.

They figure it this way: While the first quarter of the 2014-15 school year had incidents involving 4.2 percent of the riders, the first quarter of this year had an incident rate involving 5.2 percent of the riders.

This cipher takes into account the greater number of students spending more time on the bus after the consolidation plan closed five of the district’s 11 elementary schools at the beginning of this academic year.

An incident is defined as any written report by the bus driver of any occurrence involving safety or discipline.

For the officials defending all facets of the consolidation, it’s self-serving to suggest it’s only a 1 percent increase in incidents. It glosses over the fact — takes advantage of it, actually — that more children are spending more time on the bus this year than they did before.

More time on the bus is not a selling point.

Calculate the incident data another way. If you strip away the percentages and calculate the raw numbers, as school board member Leland Clark did, you get a different picture: The number of total incidents increased from 284 in the first quarter of 2014-15 to 382 in the first quarter of this school year.

That’s not a 1 percent increase in incidents. That’s 23.8 percent.

This presents a broad discrepancy in the interpretation of school bus incident data. It’s reminiscent of previous appearances of disparity in the consolidation process — like the district’s appraised property values assigned to the now-closed elementary schools that are up for sale, or the student capacity numbers for each building in the district’s original study.

Even so, in this case the disparity might suggest an action the school district should consider.

The district’s calculation method suggests that multiple incidents involved the same individuals. Note the careful wording: It’s not the number of incidents, it’s the number of riders involved in the incidents.

The district’s interpretation of the data indicates that school policy is too lenient on riders who routinely violate safety or disciplinary rules and procedures. The district should consider stronger penalties for repeat offenders, including having their bus privileges suspended or revoked.

Efficient transportation is an important ingredient for any school system, whether or not it’s in the midst of a cash-saving consolidation. It’s good to review the busing data and spot trends with an eye for improvement.

But haggling over the data should not obscure the point that school bus safety is paramount. All children who obey the rules deserve safe and secure transportation.