Education Minister Randy Horton will today be presented with the results of an inquiry into how mould was able to contaminate and force the closure of the Island’s largest public school.

A three-member independent panel brought in by Government to investigate the CedarBridge Academy mould crisis was yesterday proof-reading its report with a view to handing it over this morning. One source close to the review team told The Royal Gazette: “It’s going to be very comprehensive.”

A Ministry of Education spokeswoman confirmed last night that the report would be made public.

“The Minister was set to receive the report today but I cannot confirm that he has in fact done so,” she said.

“If he has, he has to view it extensively before he can deliver any comment. As you know, he committed to share the report with the public and he will do so in due course. I cannot tell you when that will be.”

Mr, Horton commissioned the review after closing CedarBridge on November 1 because of reports of teachers’ illness allegedly caused by the school environment.

The following month the Minister admitted that school principal Kalmar Richards and the CedarBridge board of governors first received reports of mould in the library and in the Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts as far back as December 2002.

This newspaper revealed that Government definitely knew about the sickness claims of one female teacher in March 2005 when she wrote to chief medical officer Dr. John Cann about her persistent allergies.

We also uncovered a report from US specialists which advised Government last July to spend the summer ridding the school of harmful mould and bacteria.

The clean-up of CedarBridge finally took place in November and December last year at a cost of almost $4 million and the school reopened in January. Several teachers since then have complained of ill health, with one claiming to have tested positive for the fungus aspergillus, which was found on site last year.

A CedarBridge teacher, who asked not to be named, said last night of the inquiry: “I think they’ll find out that a lot of red flags that should have indicated that there was a potential problem were ignored. “I think that the people that were in charge of the building at the time or had responsibility for the people in it did not appreciate the seriousness of the situation. It was totally preventable.

“Had they heeded the warnings of the first teacher that was taken ill in 2002 or 2003 they could have handled the situation and it would have cost a fraction of what it ended up costing.”

Another teacher said a meeting was held yesterday at the school with union officials because of ongoing complaints from staff about mould. “People are fed up and tired of being sick. The report needs to be got out there. The teachers today were like ‘look, you need to inform us what’s going on’.”

George Scott MP, chairman of the Devonshire senior school’s board of governors, said last night that he had not received the report and did not want to speculate on what it might contain.

“The Minister has responsibility for education and they were the ones that had the report commissioned,” he said. “It would go to the Minister and the Cabinet and then be disseminated down.”

Review panel members Kamoji Wachiira, Walton Brown and William Medeiros could not be contacted for comment. Nor could school principal Kalmar Richards.

Horton to get report today