St. Paul Public Schools has announced a new name for two schools that primarily serve Hmong-American students.
Txuj Ci HMong Language and Culture will have an upper and lower campus, taking the place of Phalen Lake Hmong Studies Magnet and Hmong Language and Culture Middle School, which opened this year in the former Parkway building.
Pronounced “tsoo dyee,” the name “refers to the cultural knowledge of a people. It includes everything from the language, cultural practices and beliefs, and the arts and knowledge,” according to a report to the school board Tuesday.
A name change committee considered five options, all of which were in the Hmong language.
They decided to capitalize the first two letters in HMong as a nod to both dialects: the White, who write the word “Hmong,” and the Green, who write it “Mong.”
School leaders said the new name will help with student recruitment and to avoid “misunderstanding among new families who may not know the types of programming offered at each site.”
Hmong is the primary language spoken in the homes of about two-thirds of the students at each school.