Meet Carrie Buck
Carrie Larson – later to become Dr. Carrie Buck - didn’t start her journey to becoming one of Nevada’s most successful public education “fixers” in a one-room schoolhouse on the prairie.
But pretty close.
“I went to Hinton Community School in Hinton, Iowa,” Carrie explains. “Two bars, two churches, and one stoplight. That was it. I actually graduated with pretty much the same fifty kids I started out with in kindergarten.”
And she always wanted to be a teacher.
“I would play school with my younger sister - four years younger - all while we were growing up,” Carrie continues. “I was the teacher and would teach her everything I’d learned in school that day.”
And it clearly made a difference. Carrie’s sister ended up in the “Gifted” program when it was introduced at Hinton Community School and TRIPLE-majored during her four years in college.
Like most of us, Carrie had a particular teacher who had a significant impact on her.
“My fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Juelfs, believed in me,” Carrie recalls. “I saw in her the power to breathe life and hope in others and wanted to follow in her footsteps.”
From Student to Teacher
Carrie moved to Montana after high school because her aunt, who was a flight attendant, offered free room and board. She went on to get her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Montana State University in 1995.
After graduation, Carrie learned that the Clark County School district - which was bursting at the seams with new students - was hiring 1,500 new teachers. So she moved to Las Vegas and applied.
The gamble paid off. She was immediately hired as an English Language Learner (ELL) classroom teacher. Her first teaching assignment was a 5th-grade class of 36 kids who spoke English as their Second Language - mostly Spanish, but even some who spoke Swahili.
“I was so excited to have my own classroom of children,” Carrie recalls. “I couldn’t believe I was going to get paid for this. I loved it so much!”
And she was good at it. Real good. So good, in fact, that she began teaching other teachers how to teach Second Language students at the University of Phoenix, Nevada State College and Sierra Nevada College.
Carrie also went back to school and got her Master’s Degree in Administration - which led to her promotion as Principal at C.T. Sewell Elementary School in Henderson.
A Dying School
In the middle of the 2005-06 school year, Carrie was made principal of Sewell Elementary; a school she described as “struggling.” In fact, the school was going through a “technical review” by the State of Nevada after being listed as a “Failing School.”
Sewell Elementary is the oldest school building in all of Clark County. At the time it was a drab, run-down, graffiti-covered mess whose gray walls were likened to a prison.
Student attendance and discipline were huge problems.
Test scores were in the pits, with no sign of improvement - especially for special education students and those who spoke English as a second language.
Many students came from families trapped in a cycle of poverty and wracked by physical and mental disabilities, incarceration and substance abuse.
Seven out of ten students were on the Free or Reduced Lunch plan. Parental involvement and community support were near zero.
Compounding the problems was a revolving door of teachers coming and going - with half abandoning the school every year.
Sewell Elementary was dying.
Let the Renaissance Begin!
“Where there is great love there are always miracles.” - Willa Cather
The first thing newly-minted Principal Buck did was change to school motto to “Kids First.”
She then proceeded to give Sewell Elementary a major facelift. The dull, dreary gray building was repainted with bright, colorful murals, new landscaping, a vegetable garden for the kids and a tortoise habitat.
A new-found pride in the school began to emerge. But the changes weren’t merely cosmetic.
Principal Buck secured over $3 million in grants and private funds to upgrade classroom technology with modern, state-of-the-art equipment, including SMART boards, computers, laptops and projectors for every classroom.
Teachers were given additional support assistance from school staff and rigorous performance evaluations were implemented.
In 2009 a new “Parent Cottage” was added, right on the school grounds, to increase parental involvement and help show parents how to better help their children at home.
As the Las Vegas Sun reported at the time, the new Parent Resource Center provided “a computer lab for parents and a small day-care area for younger children while parents are there.” It was also used for “parenting and language classes and library programs.”
The results were nothing short of amazing.
Sewell Elementary increased student achievement more than any other school in Henderson.
English proficiency jumped from 35% to 81%.
Math proficiency skyrocketed from 36% to 90%.
Enrollment went up by 8 percent.
Attendance increased to over 96 percent.
Teacher turn-over dropped to less than 10 percent.
And participation in parent/teacher conferences hit 100 percent. “We rejuvenated a dying school!” Carrie said with well-deserved pride. And her success did not go unnoticed…
And the “Milly” Goes to…
“The miracle is this: the more we share, the more we have.” - Leonard Nimoy
Sewell Elementary’s growing reputation for academic excellence spread well beyond the local neighborhood.
In fact, a number of families began “fudging” their home addresses; using the residences of friends and family just so their kids could be zoned to attend Sewell.
And then there was the “Milly.”
While actors have the Academy Awards and musicians have the Grammy Awards, educators have the Milken Awards.
Every year the Milken Family Foundation honors top educators from around the country with $25,000 awards to recognize “inspired excellence in the world of education.”
As the Milken Foundation notes, “the Awards aren’t about glitz and glamour. They’re about bringing attention to classroom heroes.”
And in 2008 the “Milken Educator Award for Nevada” went to C.T. Sewell Principal Carrie Larson Buck!
But she didn’t rest on her laurels and never let off the gas pedal.
In 2013, both Carrie and Sewell were featured in an article for the National After-School All Stars Program and Sewell was recognized as a “Nevada Model School” and a “National Title 1 Distinguished School.”
That same year, Carrie was inducted into the Clark County School District’s “Excellence in Education Hall of Fame.”
Little did she know the next big challenge was right around the corner…
The Foolproof “Kids First” Formula
“People who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those who are doing it.” - Bernard Shaw
In January 2014, the principal at the struggling Pinecrest Academy charter school, not far from Sewell Elementary, abruptly resigned. The school hired Carrie to turn things around.
Pinecrest Academy’s campus consisted of a series of renovated buildings in a strip mall that were converted into classrooms. It was decidedly not one of the “palaces” constructed from the ground up by the school district.
Didn’t matter to Carrie. She took over and implemented her successful “Kids First” formula which consists of…
Strict but fair school discipline; kids can’t learn in an unruly classroom
Setting high but achievable educational goals for both students and teachers
Tutoring and other special assistance for struggling students
Performance-based pay for teachers
An open-door policy for parents
When Carrie took over, Pinecrest Academy had one school of 700 students with a 3-Star (out of 5) rating.
By 2018 she had grown that one school into a four-site/eight-school network teaching over 4,600 students (with 3,500 on the waiting list) and a $35 million operating budget.
All four campuses earned a 5-Star rating last year, making Pinecrest one of the top charter school networks in the entire state.
In 2019, Carrie was named President of The Pinecrest Foundation, where she’s created a Master Teacher recognition program designed to honor and keep exceptional teachers in Pinecrest’s classrooms.
She also works relentlessly to raise private funds from businesses and individuals for pioneering school projects – including an interactive video conferencing program featuring guest speakers such as historians, military veterans, journalists and doctors - as well scholarship dollars for graduating seniors.
Legislative Service
Carrie was elected the Senator from District 5 in 2020. After her election, she served on the Education Committee and the Legislative Operations and Elections Committee during the 2021 Legislative Session.
During her first session, Carrie introduced bills on government, short-term rentals, and crimes, but focused heavily on education and prison reform. She sponsored legislation to increase transparency in school curriculums, expand career and technical education in high schools, provide ID cards to inmates as they are released from prison, and protect the confidentiality of the personal information of people who teach in prisons.
In the 2023 Legislative Session, Carrie served on the Education Committee, the Commerce and Labor Committee, and the Revenue and Economic Development Committee. She also became the Senate’s Assistant Minority Leader.
She continued to fight to improve our education system and help Nevada’s inmates, introducing bills to enhance school safety and re-institute Nevada’s Read by Grade 3 program.
All Work and No Play? No Way!
On a personal level…
Carrie’s husband, Eric, is a deputy police chief in the Henderson Police Department.
Her eldest son, Collen, is a Green Beret serving in the Army at Ft. Lewis McChord.
Her son, Colbie, is in the Army Reserves and works in information technology for an electric car company.
Her two youngest sons, Branson and Barrett, attend the Pinecrest Academy.
In her “spare” time, Carrie enjoys reading, traveling, and watching Vegas Golden Knights hockey games!