The two community-based organizations (CBOs) - We Overcome, based in Overbrook, and Security Universal, based in East Germantown - had been under contract to help improve security in dozens of city schools.

The Daily News reported April 16 that We Overcome had not paid some of its workers for weeks at a time, and on April 25 reported that Security Universal was still under contract even though the district's chief investigator had accused the firm of fraud in November for alleged double-billing.

The two firms were among eight CBOs hired to provide "mobile support teams" for safety in the schools, replacing unionized workers.

The district confirmed yesterday that it had canceled its two contracts worth $703,200 with We Overcome, and its two contracts worth $459,200 with Security Universal.

The terminations were effective last Friday, district spokesman Fernando Gallard said. He declined to cite the reasons.

"We do not comment on the reason why we sever contracts," Gallard said. "We are looking into a number of options as to how we're going to provide the resources necessary in those schools."

But Todd McIntire, general manager for Edison Schools Inc., in the Philadelphia region, said he had been told by attorneys for Edison that the district had canceled the We Overcome contracts in part because many employees did not have criminal-background checks.

"If We Overcome was not meeting the requirement of background checks, we would not support their being in our children's schools," McIntire said.

Dwayne Ming, until recently the executive director of We Overcome, said yesterday that a lawyer was examining whether his firm's contracts had been terminated legally. He said district officials had told him they were canceling the contracts because of "bad publicity in the press."

The Daily News reported last month that district officials were investigating We Overcome after repeated complaints from workers who said they were not being paid for weeks or months at a time.

At the same time, the firm's Web site said that it was planning to open both a "day-care academy" and a "family restaurant" in June. The site was still touting both projects yesterday.

We Overcome had a $403,200 contract to provide workers to three district-run schools and two schools run by Victory Schools, and a $300,000 district contract to provide workers to seven Philadelphia schools managed by Edison.

One former We Overcome employee, Iran Love, 34, of Southwest Philadelphia, said that he had attended a meeting Friday at We Overcome's office, on 68th Street near Haverford Avenue, at which Ming told workers that the contracts had ended.

Love said that Ming spoke at the meeting about possibly suing the district, claiming that its Office of Climate and Safety did not have criminal-background checks on file even though he had submitted them.

The district's inspector general, John F. Downs, had recommended in November that the district terminate its contracts with Security Universal.

His letter, which went unheeded until Friday, accused the firm of fraud and double-billing, and an absence of criminal-background checks.

Security Universal's executive director, Vertiss Powers, declined to comment yesterday. In an interview last month, Powers had denied any wrongdoing.