Phoenix school that will close this summer reaches ultimate stage of Read to the Final Four contest

PHOENIX – Four Arizona elementary schools are left standing in the Read to the Final Four contest. For one of the schools, this will be the final shot.

Kyrene de la Colina is one of three Kyrene School District schools that will close after the current academic year as the district deals with declining enrollment and funding.

But first, students from the Ahwatukee school will try to win it all at the statewide reading contest.

Read to the Final Four is a program held each year in the state that hosts an NCAA Final Four basketball event. It pits schools against each other in a March Madness style bracket, but instead of points the scoring is based on how many minutes third grade students read.

The contest is based in Phoenix this year to coincide with the Women’s Final Four.

It started in November 2025 with over 190 schools. About 12,000 third graders have combined to read nearly 20 million minutes since then.

What schools are left in Read to the Final Four contest

Kyrene de la Colina is joined in the Final Four by Mary C. O’Brien Elementary School in Casa Grande, Sun Canyon Elementary School in Phoenix and Villa de Paz Elementary School in Phoenix.

Allison McCoy is a third grade teacher at Colina. She said her students have participated in the reading contest before, but this is they first time they made it this far. She said the school’s pending closure has been a motivator for her students.

“Every Friday we have a third grade team meeting where we all get together … and we do our top readers for the week. So, the kids get to go take their reading logs home and whoever reads the most minutes, they get a little trophy that they can put on their desk for the week. And that’s every week to kind of keep them motivated,” McCoy said.

Natalie, a third grader at Colina, said she has been reading more because of the contest.

“It’s kind of about, like, building your reading confidence and like boosting it up, and we’ve made it to the Final Four. … It’s making me feel like I can really read any book I like,” she said.

The winning school will receive $5,000 for reading, literacy or library programs, while the next three schools each earn $2,500. The winner will be revealed on Thursday.

Colina’s prize money goes to the Kyrene School District school that absorbs a majority of its students next year, according to Jen Barnett, head of social responsibility and operations for the Arizona Sports & Events Alliance, the organization that runs Read to the Final Four.

Barnett compares the reading contest to a sporting event.

“They get excited when they’re working together as a team. It’s a lot like sports. They’re having to practice resilience. They have to practice grit, and they don’t realize that they’re learning to fall in love with reading because they’re just thinking they want to win those prizes,” she said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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