FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Amid a contentious Northwest Allen County Schools (NACS) school board meeting Monday night, the board voted to approve moving forward on building a third middle school in the district.

NACS officials have discussed possible expansions, including a third middle school and expanding Carroll High School, for months as the district faces an overcrowding issue.

In November, NACS Superintendent Wayne Barker told WANE 15 the district was at nearly 100% capacity at its middle schools.

At Monday’s school board meeting, Barker said the district had received feedback that indicated parents did not want NACS to expand current middle schools or build intermediate schools.

Barker also said the next steps for the new middle school will be finding a contractor and an architect before establishing cost estimates.

“Now, its kind of getting into the detailed work of creating the plans,” Barker said.

Despite not wanting to add an expansion to an existing middle school, Barker explained why the district believes adding onto Carroll High School is in the best interest of students.

“If we went to two schools, we would have a smaller school without as many offerings as we would [want],” Barker said.

In the meantime, Barker said NACS hopes to handle the district’s overcrowding issues without resorting to modular classrooms.