kabarsula St. John the Beloved principal Denise Leuci knows what’s important: ‘Being able to integrate our faith into everyday life’ bandar SLOT INDONESIA

WILMINGTON — Denise Leuci left North Carolina after almost 30 years to be closer to her family. She and her husband, Anthony, landed in Delaware and at St. John the Beloved Parish, where she said he has found another family.

Leuci, who was the assistant principal at St. John the Beloved School last year, is now the principal, succeeding Richard Hart, who retired after 18 years at the Pike Creek school. It’s not something she had in mind when she arrived, but she is happy to be in this position.

“It’s a traditional school,” Leuci said in late August. “I felt like I could walk in here as a little kid in my uniform and go to class.”

St. John the Beloved School is marking its 69th year in 2026-27, and Leuci knows it is an important part of many families’ lives. Many of her students have parents who attended, as did some grandparents. She kept that in mind as the assistant last year, and it remains a focal point.

“The core traditions of the school, you never want to mess with those things because that is what families come back looking for,” she said.

Leuci grew up in Brooklyn and attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she studied engineering. She was a research assistant, which sparked her interest in education. She started as a volunteer at her children’s school in Wilmington, N.C., before a teacher suggested she get licensed to teach. She enrolled in a program at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington for adults returning to school and eventually earned her master’s degree and administrator’s license.

She has spent all but one year of her career in education in Catholic schools. That year in public school showed her what was missing.

“The difference, being able to integrate our faith into our everyday life, was so tangible. Being able to do that, I just had to come right back,” she said.

There was a great need for Jesus at the public school, she said, but she was unable to work him into the equation.

“That just hurt my heart,” she said. “The needs were so great.”

Her two children moved to the metro New York City area, and because of family medical issues, Leuci and her husband were spending what she described as too much time traveling back and forth to North Carolina. They decided to move north.

“It was really important for us to come closer,” she said.

She discovered St. John the Beloved was looking for an assistant principal. Now they are only a few hours’ drive from their children, close enough that they can head up on a Sunday and have dinner together.

With a year at the school, she has noticed some things she wants to update, but a lot of that is behind-the-scenes stuff, Leuci said. She also would like to increase student involvement in the liturgy.

Leuci, a member of St. John the Beloved Parish, has welcomed several new faces to St. John the Beloved over the summer. She had to fill nine vacancies and spent July and August looking for people “who understand the mission. You need people who see this as a vocation. We’re forming disciples.”

When not running a school, Leuci likes to do puzzles, mostly of the word variety. She also listens to books while driving. She enjoys the beach; one of the things she misses about North Carolina was living right on the coast and being able to walk on the beach almost year-round.

But she feels at home with Delaware’s small-town feel where everyone seems to know each other.

“We felt that in North Carolina,” she said. “To find that again feels really good.”