PORTER TOWNSHIP | Porter Township School Corp. could be one of the first in Northwest Indiana to go through the new referendum process on school construction projects.

The county auditor has informed the school district that enough signatures were collected on a petition to trigger a referendum on the proposed $34 million Boone Grove High School expansion project, Superintendent Nick Brown said at Thursday's special School Board meeting.

The auditor and county voter registration office were in the process of certifying signatures on the petition, Brown said.

Brown said he expected to have more information for the board's Jan. 15 regular meeting on the petition request, the workings of the referendum process and a timeline.

Mounting a referendum would cost county taxpayers an estimated $40,000, Brown said he had been told.

Although approval of the project in a referendum would permit the district to spend beyond the new 1 percent tax cap on property taxes, Brown said the district would conduct itself as if it were bound by the cap. Brown has earlier said the district has budgeted to make up the shortfall amount through the capital projects fund.

A Porter Township referendum would not be the first vote under a new law in effect since July requiring voter approval of school projects over certain amounts.

In November, voters in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. approved a $149 million bond issue.

And Noblesville holds a special election today on a $59.5 million bond issue.

Also Thursday, the board approved the retirement of Boone Grove Elementary School Principal Carol Smith. Smith, who has led the school for eight years, will retire in June.