Valparaiso school officials are considering a massive construction plan. Now that the rush to beat the state's deadline seems not to be an issue, there's plenty of time to proceed slowly and deliberately.

The community task force convened last winter to study the district's facilities needs has come up with an indefinite proposal to consolidate all elementary schools except Flint Lake, which was built in 1993. Improvements would be made at Valparaiso High School, too.

Virginia Shingleton, who heads the Valparaiso University economics department, has said a $100 million cost estimate is "not off the mark." For the average Valparaiso home valued at $121,000, the net extra cost of a $65 million bond issue would be $102 per year, Shingleton said.

Valparaiso school officials had originally hoped to gain approval for construction before July 1, when a new state law will put the district through more hoops to gain community approval before spending that much money for school construction. Now the breakneck speed has slowed.

Valparaiso isn't facing a space crunch because of growing enrollment. In fact, enrollments are predicted to stay level over the foreseeable future.

The district does not currently offer full-day kindergarten, although a growing number of school districts across the state do so. Adding full-day kindergarten will mean extra classrooms for that purpose.

So what's driving the push for this spending spree? Valparaiso residents will hear more at Tuesday's School Board meeting. There are many questions they should be asking, including:

* How much will the district save in administrative and overhead costs from having fewer schools, and how will that compare to the cost of building four new schools?

* What would happen to the elementary schools that would be closed -- and how will that affect those neighborhoods?

* What effect will larger schools have on the students?

* How would the new facilities affect teaching styles and methods?

* How much will student performance improve with better access to newer technology? In other words, what will the taxpayers get for their money?

The task force established by the school district should be just the beginning of a long, deliberate conversation on the future of the school district. Determining space needs should be just one aspect of that process.

Given the current tax climate, Valparaiso's school administrators will need to made a strong case for these projects if they expect a referendum for the tax increase to succeed.