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A long-standing voucher school operator is under orders from the state to shape up her organization's reporting processes and meet other requirements or face getting kicked out of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.

The founder of Ceria M. Travis Academy agreed to those orders, according to the legal agreement signed in October, at the same time she says she and her lawyer are devoted to fighting them.

Dorothy Travis Moore said her organization agreed to the settlement with the Department of Public Instruction only because if it hadn't, the state likely would have withheld its first $1.14 million tuition voucher payment this fall.

Based on enrollment, the organization is expected to receive at least $4.6 million in taxpayer dollars this year.

"Our goal is to get a date in the state court and fight this and get it reversed," Travis Moore said. "It is cruel and unfair treatment."

The two schools under her organization are Ceria M. Travis Academy, a K-12 school with 437 students, and Travis Technology High School, which has 179 students, according to the state's fall 2014 enrollment count.

DPI officials say they're actually being lenient with Travis Academy, which has missed four state deadlines for submitting financial documents in recent years. By state law, that is grounds for removal from the program.

Some documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel suggest there were complaints about the legitimacy of the teachers employed by the organization. State law requires teachers in private voucher schools to have at least a bachelor's degree.

"The DPI is following state law here, and this is a legal document the school signed," DPI spokesman John Johnson said.

He added that the DPI is trying to be a good steward of Wisconsin taxpayer dollars flowing to the private voucher schools.

The settlement agreement between DPI and the academy required an in-person review of the school this fall by a state accrediting agency with Travis Moore not present. It also called for the school to secure a special bond worth about $789,000 by Dec. 17.

DPI often has required a similar bond from financially unstable schools, so the state can recoup taxpayer money if the school closes before the end of the year.

Travis Moore admitted her organization has submitted late reports in the past, including one this year that was 20 days late.

But she said that shouldn't be grounds for kicking the school out of the program. And, she said, her schools are financially stable, so the organization should not have had to post the bond.

She feels that the state is unfairly targeting her.

"They basically strong-armed us into signing (the document)," she said.

According to state documents, Travis Academy, at 4744 N. 39th St., and Travis Tech, at 8350 N. Stevens Road on the northwest side, submitted to on-site reviews by Wisconsin Religious and Independent Schools Accreditation in October. WRISA declared the schools were conforming to the requirements in state law, according to the subsequent reviews submitted to DPI.

An accompanying letter from the executive director of WRISA to state officials also said all the teachers working for Travis Academy were legitimately employed and qualified to teach at the schools under state law.

Travis Moore said she's been in business 18 years and that her schools take some of the toughest-to-serve kids in the city, including ones who have been kicked out of other schools.

"It's our goal to do anything to help our children," she said.

Even so, just 2% of students at Ceria M. Travis Academy were proficient in reading in fall 2013, according to the most recent statewide test score results. The average reading proficiency for voucher schools in 2013 was about 12%.

Travis Moore was not able to provide the Journal Sentinel with any other data about her schools' performance, such as graduation rates or attendance rates.

Unlike traditional public schools and charter schools, private voucher schools are not required to publicly post that data.

Travis Moore, a former administrator in Milwaukee Public Schools, said she's still earning a salary from her organization but has stepped back and is in more of a support and resource role this year. She said she's trying to retire.

Her total compensation was $218,000 in 2012, according to the most recent federal filings for the nonprofit.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Wisconsin Religious and Independent Schools Accreditation. The last word in the organization's name is accreditation, not association.