A St. Paul public school focused on Hmong culture and language will remain at its current campuses following a school board meeting Thursday that drew dozens of parents and students concerned about how best to deal with overcrowding at the school.
The board’s 6-1 vote Thursday means Txuj Ci HMong lower campus is to continue serving pre-K students while 5th through 8th grader will attend the upper campus for the 2026-27 school year.
School board members were expected to determine a “mid-term plan” for the upper and lower campuses that could have moved students with its Hmong Studies program to a temporary location in order to ease overcrowding. The move was supported by a district workgroup as part of long-term plans to eventually move all pre-K through 8th grade students to one unified building.
Parents supporting the temporary location weren’t pleased with decisions by district officials, who they say have delayed plans for the unified building.
The Txuj Ci middle school in St. Paul on Thursday, Dec, 19, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Concerns over temporary locations
However, members of the school board cited concerns that the two temporary locations being considered brought their own downsides and costs for the district. Instead, they also voted for a resolution to open a new pre-K through 8th grade building no later than the 2032-2033 school year, add at least one specialist to support the 5th graders at the school’s upper campus and identify ways to better utilize the school’s campus spaces, including its cafeteria, busing and community areas.
Jim Vue, currently the only Hmong member of the board, was the sole vote approving the temporary move and against the board’s resolution on reexamining current campus spaces.
As it became clear Thursday night the board would not move forward with the workgroup’s recommendation of temporary sites, angry parents got up and left.
“Two years,” one parent said, which is the number of years since the workgroup was formed and began working on a plan for the Txuj Ci facilities.
In October, board members heard about the two interim location options for Txuj Ci students with the intention of eventually moving all pre-K through 8th grade students, including those in its Hmong Dual Language program, to one location. The plan was prepared by a district workgroup consisting of parents and district members to help address overcrowding. It was finalized in March.
The two options involved one that recommended using a closed district building on Prosperity Avenue and another to use existing Hazel Park Preparatory Academy. The workgroup recommended the site at Prosperity Avenue
Superintendent cites costs, expected lower enrollment
Superintendent Stacie Stanley, citing a projected drop in enrollment for the district in the future and costs associated with the temporary move, said at the time that she couldn’t recommend either option.
The meeting, and the prospect of more delays, frustrated parents who organized a “Stay Home” demonstration earlier this week ahead of Thursday’s meeting and called for the district to vote for an interim location. Parents also expressed frustration with the time between the workgroup’s March decision and the board’s Thursday decision.
At the school’s upper and lower campuses, 59% of students were absent Monday, according to the district, 629 students in total. Districtwide, 1,416 students, or 33%, whose home language is Hmong were absent, which includes overlap with the student absences at Txuj Ci campuses. On average, 11% of students with Hmong as their home language are absent each in the district.
Shela Her, a parent of Txuj Ci students, said at the time of the October meeting that while parents are working with the district and being asked for proposals, the delays and a lack of transparent decision-making indicates the district is not collaborating.
“I feel like this has become a pattern and it really does undermine the trust that they have with us,” Her said. “It definitely wastes community effort, definitely my effort and it really does suggest that the initiative is really more about optics and not really that they actually want meaningful change.”
Parents also have expressed frustrations with what they see as a moving timeline of when a pre-K through 8th grade building will be available. District officials originally indicated it would be in five years, before saying it would take much longer, according to Sai Thao, one of the organizers of the demonstration. Thao is married to board member Vue.
Costs of temporary locations
A move to Prosperity would have meant reduced academic programming due to its size, with fewer specialists and course offerings. Hazel Park in the East Side brought the possibility for more staffing, but also for disruptions for existing students.
Costs to operate the Hmong Studies program at the Prosperity location was estimated to cost $2.59 million. A move to Hazel Park was estimated to cost $1.72 million.
Board members and district officials in the time leading up to Thursday’s meeting visited the Txuj Ci campuses and Hazel Park to have conversations and hold listening sessions.
One concern brought up by a Hazel Park parent during a public comment period — the impact on special education students.
If Hmong Studies moved to Hazel Park, two of the elementary special education classes would have needed to be relocated to make room for the two Hmong Studies special education classes, according to district officials.
Parents say Txuj Ci faces overcrowding for teachers and students, limiting the schools room for growth, making school programming for families standing room-only and stretching out lunch rotations, leaving students hungry at school.
Txuj Ci has adjusted its student body mix, moving fifth-grade classes from the lower campus to the upper campus in 2024. Parents, who saw the move as a temporary change, were supportive of that decision at the time as it allowed the pre-k to return to the lower campus, Thao said. The Pre-K program had previously been moved to another building, but parents wanted to have their youngest children in the same building as their older siblings and not have their children separated among three buildings.
Thursday meeting
At Thursday’s meeting dozens of parents, students and community members spoke to the board about concerns with overcrowding and their desire to see the board approve the workgroup recommendation for a temporary location.
Ramsey County Commissioner Mai Chong Xiong, a parent of Txuj Ci students, said her daughter eats lunch at 2 p.m. because the cafeteria is too small.
“For years, our Hmong families in St. Paul have worked with the district to grow and support Txuj Ci, a program that has helped students learn Hmong, English, and connect with our elders, maintain cultural pride and succeed academically,” Xiong said. “This program is a success story. It is not a problem. This is a good problem to have. And right now, our children are being held back by severe overcrowding and a lack of space.”
Board members said they wanted to continue working with the Txuj Ci community and show a commitment to the plans for a unified building, but could not support the temporary locations.
“Due to the current financial state of the district, it would be against my values to commit to a decision here and now that I know will create additional reductions for other school communities and at the same time then creating additional inequities and barriers in the ability to learn for more students in this district,” said board member Carlo Franco.
