Youth's Benefit Elementary School in Fallston is "falling apart" and should be prioritized for replacement by the Harford County Public Schools, a PTA representative from the school said during a community meeting in Fallston last week.

The area's county councilman said this week that replacement of the Youth's Benefit buildings should be a top school system priority, while a school system spokesperson said the water contamination problem is being addressed.

Paul MacMillan told the annual meeting of Greater Fallston Association, held at Grandview Christian Church Thursday evening, that water in the school's intermediate building is undrinkable because of lead levels, the building's water fountains are boarded up and bottled water has been given out, while the roof is also leaking significantly.

Beth Scheir, a member and former vice president, added that ceiling tiles have been falling off the roof and the building is overcrowded, with some students in trailers and the a stage being used as a permanent classroom.

MacMillan said Youth's Benefit is one of the only schools in the county where the whole student body cannot assemble in one place.

He pointed out that music and physical education are taught simultaneously in the cafeteria.

The intermediate building opened in 1973. The original building on the campus, the primary building, opened in 1953. Both have seen periodic renovations.

Youth's Benefit's has an enrollment of approximately 1,000 students, according to a school system spokesperson, who also said the school has than the state-rated capacity of 890.

The PTA has a "Build It Now Committee," although with the recent completion of Red Pump Elementary, which is near Youth's Benefit, MacMillan joked the committee could be called "Build It As Soon As You Can."

"We are realists. We understand we are not going to get a new school tomorrow," he said. "Our objective is, when you build a new school, it's got to be Youth's Benefit ... Youth's Benefit is falling apart. We need a new school."

He said County Executive David Craig has been supportive of rebuilding the school.

MacMillan said the school system's plan to install air conditioning at Youth's Benefit makes no sense in light of its many other problems.

"It is the most irresponsible fiscal move I have seen in a long time," he said.

Scheir said the leaking roofs is no small problem.

"They are not just failing, they are failing to the extent that there are buckets of water being collected in the classroom. When it rains, they are filling up with water," she said.

Meanwhile, she said, "they are paying for water to wash the food in the cafeteria."

MacMillan said he realized other schools, such as William Paca Elementary, also have falling ceiling tiles.

Also, "if we push the envelope too hard on the safety issues, they can condemn that school, that building," he said, which would result in students being sent "all over the county."

"I think the bigger issue is we have a building that is not going to heal itself," he said. "We need to move now. We need to be a voice … They are wasting money slapping Band-Aids on this issue."

Monday, County Councilman Joe Woods, who represents Fallston, said all the comments made at the GFA meeting were accurate.

"They need to tear that building down," Woods said. "Before they build another school, they need to do something about Youth's Benefit and William Paca," Woods said. The latter school in Abingdon is not in his district, he noted, but he said it still needs to be addressed in tandem with the Fallston school.

The school administration has had other ideas in the past, however. While acknowledging the problems at both schools, it also has to address the need to build a new John Archer School and to either renovate or replace Wakefield Elementary in Bel Air, another building like Youth's Benefit and William Paca that dates to the mid-20th century.

Woods said the water problems at Youth's Benefit, which he said he has been told are caused by lead in the plumbing, have been going on for at least three years. "I've asked the school system for a meeting on this, but they haven't responded," he said.

Woods said he has also seen the falling tiles and leaking roof in one of the buildings. "You go in there when it rains, and they have buckets out to catch the water," he said. "It's terrible."

In an e-mail Tuesday, Teri Kranefeld, director of communications for the school system, said lead levels were found in the intermediate building's water and a letter was sent home to parents "alerting them of the lead levels and explaining the Maryland Department of the Environment regulations."

She also wrote that the school system has run tests to determine the origin of the contamination and has concluded "that the source water is not the issue."

According to Kranefeld, pipes in the building "are currently being treated with a chemical that will coat the inner lining to ensure that future contamination won't occur." She said plumbing in the primary building "successfully underwent the same process several years ago."

Until the work in the intermediate building is completed and no contamination is found in subsequent testing, "we will continue to provide bottled water and drinking fountains will remain closed," Kranefeld wrote.