Teachers called to an emergency summit meeting yesterday grilled the Education Minister on why action was not taken sooner over health concerns at CedarBridge.

Most of the teachers at the one-hour meeting at the First Church of God, Pembroke, which was not open to the press, declined to comment as they left the venue and headed to their cars.

But one told : ?People were angry. They were asking why it has taken two, three years to deal with the problem.?

After the 2 p.m. meeting, Education Minister Randy Horton said he fielded a number of questions and ?received some constructive feedback and criticism?.

However, he said his decision to close the school on Wednesday night was ?validated? by CedarBridge staff, most of whom would have found out about the closure after the decision was announced on television news on Wednesday night.

?There has been a fair amount of anxiety, but we also received expressions of support for our decision,? he told reporters at a press conference held at Cabinet soon after the Pembroke meeting. The Minister declined to answer questions when he left the church.

Ricky Watts, athletics director at the school, said that a meeting was planned for today with principal Kalmar Richards about emergency teaching arrangements for students.

He said there was a ?lot of frank talk? as staff were updated on the situation.

Asked if he was happy with the way the situation had been handled, he added: ?I can?t be really upset about it. I felt we were being informed by the principal.?

Mr. Watts said he guessed the problem had existed for a while but he had not been directly affected because it did not happen in the area where he worked.

One teacher said she was happy with what was said at the meeting, but would not comment further.

Another said it was ?informative? but gave a ?so-so? motion with her hand.

After the meeting, Bermuda Union of Teachers? general secretary Mike Charles said the talks were to update teachers on what was being done to clean up the site ? and get it safely re-opened.

The only way to do a thorough job was to close it down, he added.

Mr. Charles said the exact nature of the problem had not been confirmed, and outside help was being sought to get an answer.

He said he understood aspergillus mould had been found in the school, although it had not been confirmed that this had directly caused staff illnesses.

Some teachers had told the meeting health concerns had been raised ?some time ago? and had not been addressed, Mr. Charles stated.

But he said that in the past affected rooms had been tested and were found to be clean.

?The bottom line is the school is closed and remediation is going to take place to ensure that the building is fit for use again.?

Asked about the mood of the meeting, Mr. Charles said: ?In the main, teachers were calm. I guess there was relief that something was being done.?