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Thousands of dollars in alcohol, travel, restaurant, and entertainment expenses were charged to the company credit card of a leader of an expanding Indianapolis charter school network who was terminated in February, according to school records.
The more than $200,000 in charges were on the card assigned to Amy Swann, who was most recently Matchbook Learning’s chief compliance officer but served as its CEO from July 2019 to around the spring of 2024. They included over $40,000 in airfare, over $3,000 in alcohol purchases, over $10,000 in restaurants, $6,091 for a luxury hotel in India — and even $1,678 in charges for sommelier courses, according to a record of charges that occurred between December 2023 and June 2024.
Matchbook officials say that some of the charges benefitted students — such as nearly $45,000 in Amazon purchases. But they say they did not know the purpose of other purchases, such as $1,080 for the Daytona International Speedway, and did not authorize spending of school funds on alcohol. They also say they were initially unaware that Swann moved to Florida in 2023, which she said she made for health reasons.
Chalkbeat obtained the credit card charges through a public records request.
The lengthy period of questionable transactions raises concerns about oversight of Indianapolis charter schools, which receive state funding like other public schools. Charters will also begin receiving local property tax revenue in the coming years through a legislative win this year that angered supporters of schools run by Indianapolis Public Schools.
Matchbook Learning took over IPS’ K-8 School 63 in 2018 as part of the district’s Innovation Network — but the turnaround strategy has largely failed to improve academic results, according to state test scores. Matchbook opened its second school, a high school, last year.
The K-8 school has one of the highest shares of students from low-income backgrounds among all schools in Marion County, according to demographic data. It is also one of the most underperforming schools in the city, according to state math and reading test scores.
Swann was officially let go through a board vote terminating her employment with cause in February, records show — only about two months after Matchbook received a renewal of its charter from Mayor Joe Hogsett’s Office of Education Innovation in December 2024.
Swann, who was a 2017 fellow with the Indianapolis-based non-profit the Mind Trust along with Matchbook founder Sajan George, had been with the school for over a decade. She oversaw the K-8 school and the construction of the new high school.
She said that some of the expenses the board said weren’t authorized were for school purposes, such as alcohol for staff events and dinners with board members and vendors. Others she said were accidental, such as the trip to India. Swann said she reimbursed the school for the cost of the hotel for that trip, which the school confirmed. The sommelier charges, Swann said, stemmed from plans to do wine-based fundraisers for Matchbook. (Matchbook board minutes from August 2024 indicate the board discussed “Wine + Welding” when reviewing possibilities for investor tours and events.)
Swann also said multiple people had access to the card, and that she did not review bank statements. She said some charges she was not aware of — such as $1,629 for Stubhub and $915 to Ticketmaster — and that these might have been fraud. But according to the school, the records reviewed by Chalkbeat were only for a card number assigned to Swann. While Swann could have given her card to others, she was not supposed to, said Matchbook Learning Chief Operating Officer Don Stewart.
“I’m happy. I’m actually a lot better off,” Swann said of her termination from Matchbook. “Now I feel like I’m going to be made out to be this evil person.”
George, now chair of the Matchbook board, said he couldn’t elaborate on Swann’s termination, but that the spending in the expense reports was a factor. He said Swann’s role with the school was scheduled to end in April, but that the school terminated Swann in February in part for the unauthorized trip to India that included the luxury hotel stay, a timeline that Swann confirmed. Swann did not have approval to take time off or charge her company card for that trip, George said.
“You’re catching us where we should be, which is we took action on the things,” George said. “And honestly, if we had known some of these things, we might have taken that action earlier.”
It’s not clear whether the school will seek to recoup any of the other costs.
George also said school leaders were unaware of Swann’s move to Florida in 2023 and that it was among the reasons the network changed her title last summer from CEO to chief compliance officer. Swann said the title change occurred because she moved to Florida.
The 2024 charter renewal process included a review of financial information, such as the school’s annual audited financial statements, according to the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation. Officials there were aware of a “leadership transition” at Matchbook but were not made aware of “spending concerns” until after Swann was terminated in February, according to an OEI spokesperson.
George denied that the charter school waited to terminate Swann until after the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation renewed its charter to avoid disrupting that process. George said that the school’s authorizer was aware that Swann had moved to Florida and that the school had new leadership.
Charter school leader took frequent flights from Florida
The more than $40,000 for airfare on the credit card is the one of the largest categories of spending.
Much of that, George said, was to pay for Swann’s commuting expenses between Indiana and Florida, where she moved in the summer of 2023.
The board initially did not realize that Swann moved to Florida, he said, but agreed to retain her until she could finish some of her assigned projects — like the construction of the new high school. George said Swann flew from Florida to Indianapolis once or twice per month.
Swann said she moved to Florida in the summer of 2023 for health reasons, and in part due to a shooting that affected the school community in March 2023.
During that shooting, which occurred after a school basketball game, two gunmen targeted a Matchbook student. Swann said she walked toward two gang members with guns out who came into the gym looking for the student and convinced them to leave.
Swann said that some airfare charges were also for school board members who live out of state to travel to Indiana. State law does not have any residency requirements for charter school board members.
George said the school began to notice that the charges for the flights were not the least expensive possible, as required by the school’s policy. Among the travel expenses is a nearly $1,500 charge for the Delta lounge.
Still, George said it was important to the school to retain Swann because of her long tenure with Matchbook Learning, and because of the ongoing construction project she was overseeing. But after it became clear she would not return, the school changed Swann’s title and duties.
“School leadership is not a remote or hybrid job,” George said.
In the public records obtained by Chalkbeat, the school listed Swann’s salary at $187,000.
Swann is the third Mind Trust fellow to attract controversy in recent years.
In 2019, the nonprofit ended its fellowship with Tariq Al-Nasir after Chalkbeat uncovered his financial troubles and questionable academic credentials. A school launched by another Mind Trust fellow, Shy-Quon Ely, also faced a discrimination lawsuit in 2021 before the IPS school board voted to remove it from the Innovation Network later that year. The school later settled the lawsuit for $48,500, according to WRTV. The Mind Trust later supported the district’s decision.
In a statement, Mind Trust spokesperson Kateri Whitley said the vast majority of the organization’s more than 80 fellows have a “strong track record of leadership for the students and families they serve.”
The Mind Trust “had no knowledge of any allegations of misspending” regarding Swann, Whitley said, and noted that the group had no formal relationship with her once her fellowship ended in 2018.
“As with any school, whether it be traditional, charter, or private, we strongly believe excessive spending for travel, meals, and other expenses that are not directly related to student learning are not prudent uses of school funds,” the statement said. It also said the organization supports the Matchbook Learning board’s decision to terminate Swann’s employment if they found misconduct.
Charter school founder: Ex-CEO lacked good judgment
The credit card charges include roughly $1,525 for two meals at Harry and Izzy’s, $2,076 for two visits to Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and nearly $1,600 in charges to seafood restaurants in Florida.
Swann attributed these costs to meals with community partners, vendors, and staff.
She attributed roughly $1,343 spent at a Florida Costco to materials she would purchase for the school to later bring up in her suitcase for events. And while she was uncertain about charges totaling $1,080 for Daytona International Speedway, she later said that the school explored partnerships with Indy Car and NASCAR.
The card records also show charges to wine stores like Vivino and Total Wine in the first six months of 2024. These purchases were made after George told school leaders to stop paying for alcohol on the school’s tab in 2023, said Stewart, Matchbook Learning’s chief operating officer.
“It’s fair to say that any alcohol charges on the credit card after that were against what the board’s directive was to myself and the leaders in the school,” Stewart said.
But Swann said the policy not to purchase alcohol for staff was adopted after the charges, in the summer of 2024.
George and Stewart also said that board dinners took place once a year and only in Indianapolis. But the card charges include dozens of dinners at higher-end restaurants in Indianapolis and Florida.
Swann said the charges for high-end Indianapolis restaurants were for when board members who live outside of Indianapolis would come to visit, or to celebrate when teachers made good academic progress or other milestones. The Florida dining charges, she said, were for when community partners, vendors, and other people the school was working with would visit the state.
George said he was unaware of some of these charges until Chalkbeat highlighted them, adding that “we just don’t look at that level of detail” with the credit card statement. Yet he indicated the school previously had some concerns that led to Swann’s change of roles at the school.
“The details might be surprising or unknown to me previously, but the general lack of transparency and good judgment is not new to me, which is why we made those [title] changes,” George said.
Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.
Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.
