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PATERSON, NJ— City education officials are paying almost $3 million to settle two lawsuits involving Arrow Security and Pritchard Industries that previously provided security and custodian services for district schools.
The largest payout, $2.5 million, will go to Arrow Security which provided security guard services during the 2022-23 academic year. Pritchard Industries will get $479,609 in a legal dispute over custodian contract payments involving the period when schools were closed during the COVID pandemic.
The Paterson Board of Education voted in favor of both settlements during its Aug. 6 meeting. None of the board members made any comments about the payouts.
Arrow filed a lawsuit against the district in May 2024 accusing Paterson school officials of violating their $9.1 million contract, which the company said called for it to provide 177 full-time security guards, 13 supervisors, a dispatcher and manager.
Arrow said Paterson imposed “burdensome and impractical” requirements on the security guards the firm provided, including that they take random drug tests conducted by an independent laboratory, rather than allowing them to submit to the company’s in-house screening.A Jersey joke? Paterson now has 3 councilmen facing separate criminal charges
Rejected 37 school guards who tested positive for marijuana
Arrow said Paterson schools rejected 37 school guards who tested positive for marijuana. The company’s lawsuit also said the district would allow Arrow to assign only guards over the age of 25 to work at city high schools, and the firm said that created problems in finding people to work in $15-per-hour jobs.
The lawsuit also said there were flaws in the school district’s billing system.
Overall, Arrow claimed it submitted about $5.43 million in invoices to the district and received payment for only $1.85 million.
The district’s response to company’s complaint said Arrow fell short in meeting its obligations under the contract.
“Almost immediately, it was clear that Arrow was in over its head, and made promises it could not keep,” said lawyers for the school district. “Arrow’s procrastination, deceit, inability to keep its word, lack of professionalism, incompetence, poor record keeping, and even poorer business practices became evident within the first few months of the contract.”
Company submitted invoices for months when schools were shut
In the Pritchard case, it was the Paterson school district that filed the litigation against the vendor. Pritchard had provided custodian services to the district for more than six years between 2005 and 2020 before the billing dispute arose.
The district’s lawsuit said the company submitted invoices for $620,000 monthly payments for April, May and June in 2020, when schools were shut down during the pandemic, a period when Pritchard’s employees performed no work in city education facilities.
The district said it sent Pritchard $1.3 million for those invoices in August 2020. The next month, the district determined that it should not have made the payment and asked for reimbursement, the lawsuit said. But Pritchard refused to pay the money back, the district alleged.
Pritchard’s response to Paterson’s claims cited a state law adopted during the pandemic requiring districts to make payments on contracts “as if the school facilities remained open.” The company filed its own legal claim against the district seeking additional payment.
A Superior Court judge ruled against the Paterson district’s lawsuit in 2023, and city education officials filed an appeal.
The Paterson Board of Education resolution approved this week said the district’s check to Pritchard for $479,609 would be available for pickup on Aug. 7.
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