Burke students read all the way to the Final Four

Excitement was in the air as Burke and Wernli elementary school students waited to see if they would advance to the Read to the Final Four bracket.

Students and staff alike screamed and jumped up and down as it was announced that Burke Elementary School was among the final four contenders. 

With 88 third-graders participating, Burke has generated 1,827,419 minutes so far.

As the city prepares to host the NCAA Men’s Final Four basketball tournament, third graders across the city have been participating in the Read to the Final Four Literacy Challenge by recording as many reading minutes as possible. The program is set up in bracket-style, similar to the NCAA March Madness tournament, with schools across the city, including all 83 elementary schools from NISD, competing in the first round. Reading minutes were logged and accumulated by students during the weeks to follow, advancing to Round 32, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, and finally, the Championship round.

Burke Elementary has been on the “offense” all year with a multitude of reading engagement events. They hosted several themed Saturday reading events, such as campouts, campfire stories, and fairy tales to engage students and parents. In addition, Librarian Yilsa De Los Santos created a variety of reading challenges to encourage students to read over Spring Break. 

“We are so excited,” says Principal Marissa Pena. “This has been such a great community effort for us and we are in it to win it.” 

The competition began in November, with 306 schools participating. The goal was to read a cumulative 25 million minutes. To date, the young readers have surpassed that goal, logging 27,263,640 minutes. 

Burke students will join the other three schools in the bracket and attend the Final Four Fan Fest at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center on April 4. The winning school will receive $5,000 toward a library makeover.

Individual Winner

Separately, Read to the Final Four held a Holiday Hoopla Tournament, an optional challenge designed to inspire individual reading among students while school was out. From Dec. 23, 2024, to Jan. 5, 2025, students were encouraged to read by using digital resources, physical books, or visiting their library to foster a personal love for books and a chance to earn exciting rewards along the way. 

During those two weeks, 940 students from 65 schools across 15 districts logged more than 500,000 minutes, with Kaizen Moy from Ott Elementary School logging the most minutes at 7,720 minutes! 
 

NISD Board of Trustees join the call to read

In solidarity with our third graders, members of the NISD Board of Trustees developed a bracket among other district trustees to read to as many students at as many campuses as possible. 

According to Board President Bobby Blount, who organized the competition among other Board members, 32 Trustees across San Antonio and surrounding areas signed up to compete in the reading challenge. The competition among Trustees is based on the total minutes read to a class of any size. 

Currently, Blount and Trustee Karen Freeman are ranked in the top two spots, with over 2,000 minutes (33 hours) each of reading to NISD students.

“My goal is to read to students at every NISD elementary school,” Blount announced during a NISD Board meeting. To date, he has read at 38 campuses.