Call it first day jitters for the Butler School District. There are clearly some kinks in the bus system that need working out, and parents are justifiably upset over long bus rides and late student pickup and drop off times.

The district could have done a better job on Tuesday of keeping parents in the loop regarding its busing challenges. But that street runs both ways. Parents up in arms over the transportation problems should ask themselves: If this is the worst problem their children face all year, won’t that be a good thing?

Tuesday was the first day of school following a months-long transition period for the district that has effected thousands of students, hundreds of teachers and closed down five school buildings. Anyone who believed a plan of that scale was going to go off without a hitch was fooling themselves.

That said, students waiting for buses for more than an hour; waiting for buses that never appear; and arriving home more than 90 minutes after school dismisses are serious failures.

The district has had months to develop its transportation plan for the year. Tuesday’s failures, which Superintendent Dale Lumely attributed to longer-than-expected loading times at the district’s intermediate building, show how seemingly-minor events can ripple through the district and create widespread consequences.

Twenty buses were apparently delayed amid confusion after the final bell rang on the first day of school. Characterized like that, the issue doesn’t seem quite so dire. Then again, we were not in the shoes of worried parents wondering where their children’s buses were at 5 p.m. on a school night.

The hope as of Thursday was that these issues can and will be fixed by tweaks to some bus routes and a more structured dismissal process at the district’s intermediate school. That’s a reasonable response that was handed down quickly and should be easily implemented. If it puts this problem to rest, no one will think twice.

That’s because school transportation is something hidden in plain sight. It should run like a well-oiled machine, we feel, and don’t trouble us with the details.

When those details do emerge, they are often surprisingly complex, expensive and delicate. We’re not prepared to accept even a partial failure of a system we are forced to rely upon utterly and trust completely.

That’s what happened on Tuesday. But the litmus test for this school year won’t be taken on a school bus. Let’s see how well the district lives up to its promise of cost savings and curricular improvement for students.

Those are tests teachers and administrators will face throughout the 2015-16 school year. By the time we have enough information to grade the results, Tuesday’s bus ride glitches will be a distant memory.