The 110-year-old STC middle school building’s future is in limbo as a vote on a proposed purchase agreement with Southfork Premier Properties LLC approaches. Photo taken on Wednesday November 19. PHOTO BY MICHAEL D. DAVIS AND JONATHAN MEYER

Left vacant, made into an International School, a state home for children, or demolished — what will become of the old South Tama County Middle School? The institution has served the community for over a century, with every lifelong local resident passing through its hallowed, un-air-conditioned halls. From its construction in 1915 until its closure in June of 2025, the school at 201 South Green St. had been home to eager young students in the heart of Toledo. Standing for more than 110 years, the building has entered its next chapter with its future use remaining in limbo.

Local leaders hold varying opinions about what should happen next with the old middle school. “The best future use of the building would be apartments. The reality is these projects cost too much money and rely on Federal and State grants. With the uncertainty of grant funding, no investor is going to take on that risk at this time,” Toledo Mayor Brian Sokol said.

Over the course of two school board meetings, the potential buyer and end user’s plan was revealed.

“The direction they’re really going is a children’s home in the community. We’ve met with the City of Toledo representatives, and they are in favor,” STC Superintendent John Cain said at the Sept. 22 school board meeting.

During the Oct. 13 public hearing, the second option of an international school came to light.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL D. DAVIS AND JONATHAN MEYER

The school would bring both students and teachers to live on site, offering advanced academics and extracurricular programs to international students.

In talking about the international school project, Cain mentioned the intentions of the end buyer, who resides in California.

“His passion is in the international school because he’s wanted to do that. He’s not been able to find the exact demographics of everything he needs,” he said.

Toledo City Council Member Joe Boll hopes to keep it in use.

“If a beneficial use for the building can be found, it should be used instead of being demolished. The building should not sit vacant and deteriorate. If a viable use for the gym can be found, it should be used,” he said.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL D. DAVIS AND JONATHAN MEYER

Fellow City Councilman Steve Vesely was much more blunt with his opinion.

“Tear it down, (and) save the gym if possible,” he said.

Cain spoke about his objectives for the old middle school.

“If our community could secure a children’s home, it would mean that many or most of those children would attend STC schools. This would greatly assist with declining enrollment and result in $$ for the school district,” he said.

The current situation was set in motion in 2022 after STC voters overwhelmingly approved a bond referendum to repurpose the vacant Iowa Juvenile Home into a middle school, and district leaders began efforts to find a long term use of the old middle school property. While renovations to the new middle school neared the conclusion of the project, the board moved closer to the decision to sell.

Pictured is a screenshot of the former Liberty School in Rocky Ford, Colorado. A fire damaged the already vandalized school in Nov. 2024. The photo obtained from Google Street View shows the exterior of the former school in August 2025.

On Oct. 14, 2024, a closed session of the school board was held. The board minutes from that meeting list the reason as “Pursuant to Iowa Code 21.5(1)(j) to discuss the purchase or sale of particular real estate, but only when premature disclosure could be reasonably expected to increase the price the Board would have to pay for the property, or in case of a sale reduce the price the Board could receive for the property.”

After the first closed session, seven more sessions referencing the same Iowa Code were held over the next year, a fact that Cain pointed out at the public hearing on Oct. 13, 2025, when asked about transparency.

“There was never a rush. We’ve been working on this for over a year now,” he said.

On Dec. 9, 2024, the board met before their regularly scheduled meeting, listed in the minutes as “The Board toured the old middle school to explore the potential future uses of the space. The Board then moved on to the new middle school to review the construction progress made so far. Afterward, they toured the Partnership Center gymnasium.”

On Aug. 11, 2025, the three parcels of land connected to the old middle school were listed for sale; those include the school on South Green Street, the tennis courts and green space to the East of the building, and the old football field.

By the September 22 board meeting, a public hearing was scheduled for Oct. 13, revealing a buyer.

Southfork Premier Properties LLC, is the company that has bid on the old middle school. Southfork is one of five businesses registered to George Duncan of Meadville, Mo. The other businesses include Southfork Ventures, George and Gayla Properties, Bargain Properties and Gold Nugget Properties.

The school district, Toledo Economic Development, and the Toledo City Clerk’s office all conducted research into the buyer.

“Our research shows a history of buying and re-selling of properties,” Mayor Sokol said.

Research conducted by the Tama-Toledo News Chronicle indicated a total of 12 properties that Duncan had bid on using his various businesses. Of these 12 properties, he successfully purchased eight.

George Duncan has bought many schools and buildings around the United States, mainly with his businesses Gold Nugget and Southfork Premier Properties. One such school was Wellington Junior High in Wellington, Kan. Leaders in Wellington, a small community with approximately 7,500 residents, explored a few different options with the school. In 2013 and 2014, a local company had the plan to develop the building into a 42-unit apartment complex once they bought the school for $150,000.

A local news agency, The Sumner News Cow, reported that the deal fell through after federal housing credits could not be secured. Duncan then purchased the property in 2015 for $11,100 through Gold Nugget Properties.

The school was called “one of Wellington’s biggest eyesores,” in an article The Sumner News Cow published in 2021. The building looked vacant and its use at the time a mystery, but a collection of inoperable vehicles parked at the front entrance of the school caused concern among residents. The property had now changed hands and was owned by a man named Joe Gallo. In the 2021 article, one Wellington city council member was quoted as saying, “It looks like a junkyard.”

The 96,000 square foot school is now zoned residential, according to property records, and for several years, had a single family living inside. Recently, the school was up for sale again; a sale is currently pending, this time at a price of $425,000.

Duncan and Gold Nugget Properties purchased a former school in another small town, Rocky Ford, Colo., a community of 3,800 residents. Gold Nugget bought the Liberty School in January of 2013 for $28,500. The Kiowa County Independent reported that on Aug. 5, 2013, David William Loy, DBA Love Ministries bought the school from Gold Nugget for $77,100. Several years later, in 2021, as the school still sat vacant, J. C. Homm of Bennett, Colo., bought the delinquent taxes on the property and was required to pay them for three years before then being able to apply for a deed.

The Liberty School (pictured above) remained vacant and kept degrading from frequent vandalism until a large fire destroyed the center of the school on Nov. 25, 2024. Norman L. Kincaide, Ph.D. said in his article for the Kiowa County Independent about the fire, “On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, 2 P.M., Chief Ray Gonzales conducted me on a complete walk-through of Liberty School. What I saw was truly disgusting and discouraging. Liberty School is much worse inside than the defaced exterior indicates. Not one square inch of the school is not contaminated by debris, trash, urine, remnants of warming fires, physical destruction in every room, and graffiti on all the walls. I threw away the old pair of boots I wore for the walk through. Liberty School cannot be redeemed and needs to be demolished. Fleeting thoughts of a repurposed property I had the day of the auction are now replaced by a visual from my front door of a heap of rubble that was Liberty School, a block and a half away.”

Madison Park Elementary of Litchfield, Ill., was purchased by Duncan and Southfork Premier Properties, on Dec. 13, 2024, for $20,010. Seven days later, on Dec. 20, in Wyoming, Clear Vision Property Investments LLC was established as a company. Eleven days after Clear Vision was first incorporated, on Dec. 31, 2024, the company bought Madison Park Elementary and one parcel behind the school for $90,000. According to local reporter Mary Herschelman with The Journal-News, there has been “no visible work being done” on the school, “but it seems to be consensus among the locals there’s a family living in the old school.”

The two other parcels that Duncan and Southfork bought from the school district were sold in June of this year to Ernest Longwell for $22,000. After buying the Litchfield parcels for $20,010 and conducting three sales, gross profits were $91,990 for Duncan and Southfork.

A bit closer to home is the community of Keokuk, Iowa, a town of 9,400 residents. On Dec. 11, 2015, Duncan and Gold Nugget Properties LLC, bought the school for $11,001, according to an article from Tri States Public Radio. On Aug. 23, 2016, Gold Nugget sold the Keokuk school to Zbigniew Leskiewicz for $51,100. The school sat vacant for years and then changed hands again, this time being sold to Commercial Contracting Services LLC for $75,000. The school is now once again up for sale, this time for $315,000.

The North Elementary School building in Sidney, Neb., a town of 6,500 people, was sold to Southfork Premier Properties for $24,000 in January of 2025, according to an article from News Channel Nebraska. The school has since been sold to Tamara Solomina of Woodland Hills, Calif. According to local sources, the building remains vacant.

In April of 2025, the Webster Elementary School in Yankton, S.D., was purchased by Southfork Premier Properties for $11,100, according to an article in the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan. The school is now owned by Maksim Kovalerchik of Sherman Oaks, Calif. According to local sources, the building remains vacant.

Kovalerchik is suspected to be the end buyer of the STC Middle School. In the May 6 STC school board minutes, Mike Kovalerchik was listed in attendance for a closed session with the board. Attempts to confirm that Maksim and Mike are one and the same have been futile.

Maksim Kovalerchik is the registered agent for a business called Max Oil Exploration and Extraction in California. Max Oil was started in June 2007. According to information listed on Bizprofile.net about Max Oil, a third Kovalerchik name is mentioned. Aleksandr Kovalerchik is listed as the Chief Executive Officer for Max Oil.

“They have answered all kinds of questions that the District has had. At this point they are in the middle of finalizing a contract to purchase property from the District. They both, the buyer and end user, indicated they are not interested in media coverage at this time. Once they are the rightful owners and own property in the community, I am sure they would enjoy chatting with you,” Cain said in an email to the News Chronicle.

All attempts to contact the possible buyer, George Duncan, for a comment were fruitless; a letter was even sent to the address associated with Southfork Premier Properties LLC in Missouri.

Many questions, few answers

Multiple leaders in the community have also tried to find out the identity of the end buyer to no avail. In an email sent to Toledo Economic Development Director Katherine Ollendieck, Cain attempted to quell any curiosity she had into the identity of the end buyer.

“In talking with the buyer and the end user, they do not want their names released to the press. The press have been asking us for their information as well. Out of respect, I am not sharing their cell phone information at this time,” Cain said in an email.

After reading this email aloud at the November 10th Toledo City Council meeting, Ollendieck expressed her reservations.

“To be honest, I was your big champion on this six weeks ago, and I still like the idea, but I am becoming more and more skeptical by the day,” she said.

Vesely, the Toledo City Councilman, responded bluntly.

“What are they hiding? I mean, the whole deal from the start sounded shady, and it gets shadier. And that Cain, he don’t give a s***. All he wants to do is wash his hands of it. We’re gonna get stuck with it,” he said.

“Tear it down. The money was put into the bond issue for demolition so that this school would not become another Montour school sitting empty and rotting away,” Vesely also wrote in an email to the News Chronicle.

The bond referendum, passed in March 2022, allowed the district to issue up to $15 million in general obligation bonds to convert the Iowa Juvenile Home (IJH) campus into a new middle school. The ballot language allowed the district to “remodel, repair, rebuild, improve, furnish and equip” the IJH property and improve the surrounding site. The remainder of the necessary funding was planned to come from district sales tax revenue and existing funds already available to the district. In December of 2022, the construction team estimated that a $500,000 line item could be used as a placeholder for potential demolition of the empty school, if no use was found for the property. The budget item ensured the project monetarily accounted for all possible outcomes as planning progressed.

Demolition was mentioned as an option during the Oct. 13 public hearing.

“With multiple layers of buyer and end user, a purchase agreement alone is not enough. The best solution is to require the buyer to put up a bond equal to demolition costs,” Sokol has stated.

Cain was not receptive to the idea.

“We talked this morning about not being able to do an insurance bond. The purchaser’s not interested in that. It is not cost effective and our legal team is also saying it’s not cost effective or legal for the school district to use funds from the purchase to put inside of an insurance bond,” he said during the Oct. 27 board meeting.

Vandalism and deterioration are the biggest worries of those concerned that the old middle school will sit vacant, especially as it has already been a bit of a problem.

“We have taken one report of broken windows at the former STC Middle School facility. The school promptly took action in securing these windows,” Toledo Police Chief Dan Quigley said. “I fear any vacant building to be vandalized as they sit vacant for extended periods of time. We took multiple reports of vacant buildings being vandalized in ‘uptown’ Toledo over the years. The longer they sit empty, the more likely it is to attract that sort of activity.”

Terms of the sale

The proposed purchase agreement also includes timelines intended to prevent the properties from sitting idle. Under the terms, the former middle school facility must be operational by Dec. 1, 2030, or ownership of the property would revert back to the district. A separate condition tied to the tennis-court parcel requires the buyer to convert the courts into pickleball courts by Oct. 1, 2026.

A public hearing was held last month to discuss the proposed sale of three Toledo parcels including the old middle school. With nearly 30 community members in attendance, concerns were voiced about gym usage, property upkeep, delivering on promises, and much more. After an hour of discussion and discourse about the fate of the building, the hearing was closed, and no subsequent action was taken in the regularly scheduled board meeting.

The STC Rec board has expressed much interest and concern over the use of the old middle school gym. Among other reasons, the rec board wants to use the gym as a permanent facility as the one they use now lacks heat and indoor plumbing.

The renting of a space at the old Tama Paper Mill is beneficial to the STC Rec board, but they do not feel it is a sustainable option. An agreement was made with the buyer to rent the gym out at a fair market price, ensuring the space is still accessible to the community.

The purchase agreement is for three parcels that are currently owned by the school district. The first parcel, which is the land that the old middle school sits on, is currently assessed at $75,524. The old middle school itself is assessed at $781,950. According to the purchase agreement, this parcel would be bought for $20,100.

The second parcel of land, located to the east of the old middle school, holds a field, tennis courts, and a shelter house, and it is currently assessed at $62,440. This piece of land would be bought for $10,010.

The final parcel of land mentioned in the purchase agreement is the old football field located at the corner of Ross and Ann, and it is currently assessed at $52,740. The purchase agreement states that this bit of land would be purchased for $8,510.

Additionally, the buyer has agreed to buy the remaining kitchen equipment for an extra $5,000. They also plan on buying the remaining exercise equipment for $2,000.

In total, if the sale is approved, Southfork Premier Properties, which was the only bidder on the property, will pay a total of $45,620. For this amount, he will receive all three parcels, the remaining kitchen equipment, and the remaining exercise equipment.

When asked about the bid of $20,100 for the old middle school parcel, Mayor Sokol stated,”It’s a lot of real estate for the price, you can’t build a single car garage for that. My fear is the buyer will scrap the material and skip town, leaving an empty shell for the City to clean up.”

He also clarified why the city of Toledo never put in a bid for the old middle school.

“Liability. The same reason no one else bid on the property. We know what it will cost to demo,” he said.

It may be “a lot of real estate for the price,” but Cain stated that he is assured the deal will come to fruition.

“We have countless meetings invested with the end user. He has shared his hope and beginning plans to utilize the building as a children’s home or an International School. He has committed to upgrading the current tennis court and resurfacing it into a pickleball court. In addition, he has connected with a local individual to maintain the grounds throughout the winter and summer,” he said. “Other than that, I am hard pressed to believe that someone would invest close to $50,000 not to do their best to proceed with initial plans. In addition, why would they purchase two additional properties, equipment, etc. to not follow through with a plan?”

Duncan and his wife came to town this summer to tour the old middle school, according to Cain.

“We have worked with the city from the initial stages of this project and intend for our continued partnership with them to support this investment for our community,” Cain said. “Together, the District will work with the end user to minimize the risk for the city to the best of our ability.” However, Sokol, who has not met the buyer or end user in person, was less confident.

“I would feel better if the buyer were willing to come to town, meet the local leaders face to face, and show us the plan, show us your past results, (and) give us references. The fact that they haven’t reached out is concerning. This could be a great opportunity for the community. This could also be the beginning of a year-long nuisance abatement battle with an out of state buyer. The reality is, it won’t take long to know which path we’re going down,” he said.

What will ultimately happen to the old middle school is unknown. On Monday, Nov. 24, at the Partnership Center, the STC school board will hold one final public hearing on the subject before making its decision on whether or not to sell to Southfork Premier Properties. The fate of the 110-year-old building is now in the hands of five elected representatives who could not be reached for comment.

Editor’s Note: This story is being published online ahead of the Friday, Nov. 21 print edition of the News Chronicle.