Home

When Jim Vue joined the Saint Paul Public Schools Board of Education in July 2020, he was selected to fill the seat that was tragically vacated when then-Board Chair Marny Xiong died from COVID-19. Just three years and three days prior to Marny’s passing, Jim’s 6-year-old daughter drowned in Lake Elmo. One of the Vue family’s five children, Ghia Nah has remained a strong presence in her family’s lives and continues to make an impact on her community despite her physical absence.

The family’s story has been shared in the media, in a children’s book by award-winning Hmong author Kao Kalia Yang, and with those close to the Vues. Now, a new mural commissioned by In Progress, a local non-profit arts group, “honors the grief we carry for those no longer living within this world.”

Titled “Rainwatcher” after the meaning of Ghia Nah’s name, the mural features a faceless girl in a traditional Hmong dress running in front of a large wave and a starry sky. “Ghia was a force of love and curiosity. She sought to make new friends at every turn and ran through our halls introducing herself to others and then introducing them to others. At her young age she built community as she brought a new definition of belonging to those who had the privilege of knowing her.”

Throughout the process of creating the mural, visual artist Xee Reiter encountered many other stories of grief that deserved to be memorialized. The result is a series of individual stories interwoven into a single mural that is “not only an offering to Ghia and her family, but to all the artists, families, and spirits who walk with grief at In Progress.”

The mural debuted at a community event on June 14, 2025, and can be viewed on the exterior of the In Progress building at 213 Front Ave. in St. Paul’s North End. Below is an excerpt from Jim Vue’s remarks that he shared at the event, titled “My Hollow”:

In the afterlife, Hmong people say we will be united again with our ancestors. If I meet Ghia in the halls of our ancestors, there’s only one thing I want to say to her:

"My name is Jim Vue, son of Wakhue Vue and See Yang. I am married to Sai Thao, daughter of Shong Ying Thao and Thia Cha. My children are Ty Lee Vue, Thee Kou Vue, Ghia Nah Vue, Dhoua Hli Vue and Hlushia Khaoshoua Vue.

In life, I failed you. We got separated. I couldn’t find you in time and you died. But in death, I’ve answered the great question that your life has asked of me."

"Dad, was our short time together worth a lifetime of grief?" 

"Ghia, I wouldn’t change a thing. Will you have me as your father one more time?"

When Karina León de Bettino moved to Minnesota from Mexico in 2017, it wasn't easy. She had worked as a teacher and a journalist in Mexico, but being an immigrant who did not speak perfect English made it difficult to find a job at first. After many months, she was hired as an educational support professional in Minneapolis Public Schools, where she discovered her passion for libraries.

At the Spanish immersion school where she worked, they never had a Spanish-speaking librarian. "How can a librarian truly inspire students to love reading in Spanish if the cannot read, write or speak the language?" she recalls thinking. She also considered the power of her students seeing someone who looked like them as the school librarian, and decided to go back to school to become a Library Media Specialist.

Karina continued to work at the Spanish immersion school while pursuing her degree, working closely with her fellow teachers and creating library lessons in Spanish. In 2024, she came to Saint Paul Public Schools as a bilingual educational assistant at Creative Arts Secondary School and Open World Learning Community. She graduated with her master's degree from St. Cloud State University in May 2025, becoming the first licensed Mexican librarian in Minnesota.

"I believe education is the cornerstone of a society. I believe that the library of a school is the heart of that community," Karina said. "My dream is to keep that heart beating so I can guide all my students to love reading and help prepare them for a complicated world."

Karina will start in her new role as a Spanish teacher at Highland Park Middle School in the fall.

If you can dream it, you can achieve it. No one knows this better than Eli, a student at Focus Beyond Transition Services whose entrepreneurial spirit and passion for baking inspired a new menu item that will be served in every Saint Paul Public Schools cafeteria starting in fall 2025.

The story begins with Eli’s grandma, Shirley, and her family recipe for apple cake. Fresh apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar are the primary flavors in this family favorite dessert. Eli, who works at the Lighthouse Coffee Cart at 360 Colborne, approached his job coach Mei Roen about baking and selling muffins at the coffee cart. Janelle Kelly, a work-based learning coordinator at Focus Beyond, brought the idea to SPPS’s head chef Bono Gbolo, who happily agreed to meet with Eli and talk “chef to chef.”

Chef Bono and Eli met at Focus Beyond to talk about several of Eli's family recipes and what they mean to him and his family. Together they agreed on a recipe that would be most adaptable to mass production for school meals. Chef Bono explained what’s involved in "scaling up" a recipe, and then invited Eli to be part of the process at the district’s central kitchen. There, he got to see how the muffins are made and taste tested two versions of his grandma’s recipe, ranking them by taste, texture, aroma and appearance.

After selecting the winning recipe, the Nutrition Services central kitchen team put it into production while Eli came up with a name for the muffin and designed a logo to put on the packaging. On May 22, Eli and his classmates at Focus Beyond and students at Bridge View School were the first to taste what thousands of students across the district will soon know as the Golden Hug Muffin. 

Eli wants to encourage others to share their recipes and is interested in working in a bakery or restaurant himself. This summer, he will move out of his parents’ house and into an apartment above their garage with a roommate. Congratulations to Eli and all of the staff at Focus Beyond and Nutrition Services who supported his dream!