WILMINGTON — When St. Peter Cathedral School needed a principal in the middle of the last academic year, cathedral rector Father Joseph McQuaide tabbed longtime teacher Karen Banta. She remains in the role on a full-time basis this year and is hoping to enhance St. Peter’s reputation as “the school with a heart in the heart of the city.”
Banta, 45, is in her 22nd year at St. Peter’s. She spent 15 years teaching fifth grade before switching to third and fourth grade. The school has been her professional home since she graduated from West Chester University.
When Banta was in college, her sister worked at St. Peter’s. Sister Barbara Ann Curran, then the principal, invited Banta to work at the school. That paid off when she graduated.
“I didn’t even have an interview. I was just hired on the spot as a fifth-grade teacher,” she said in mid-August.
At that time, Banta figured she’d work at St. Peter’s for a few years before moving to a public school district. She is a product of the Garnet Valley School District in Delaware County, Pa. But after developing a bond with the students and their families, she has never wanted to leave.
“You just develop a great bond with all of the families and the students. The bond is something that I had with all of my classes, students, parents,” she said.
Banta has some plans in the back of her head, but her main goal is to boost the enrollment and bring the families together again. She also wants to help teachers who were new last year who didn’t get the benefit of a full-time principal for the entire year.
So far, the most visible change has taken place inside her office. The carpet was removed to expose the original flooring, and the dark paneling is gone, replaced by brightly painted walls.
“New beginnings,” she said.
There is something about the students at St. Peter’s that Banta finds irresistible. Many, she said, look forward to the structure that the school day provides.
“When you walk inside here, when the kids are here, it’s like a safe haven,” she said. “The kids are so kind, so polite, and when I come here, you make their day so much better.”
Teachers at the school find that the job is more than instruction, Banta continued. “It’s not just the teaching part. It’s the caring, having your faith in God, loving these children wholeheartedly. They need that smile every day.”
Banta said she wanted to be a teacher from the time she was in third grade, when she had a teacher named Mrs. Roberts. Her classroom was well-run, and Banta has modeled her rooms after that one.
She recalls teaching a class of invisible students in her basement. Her father would help out by making copies of worksheets that Banta would pass out.
Banta and her husband, Dave, have two daughters, Carley and Claire. They live in West Grove, Pa., where they are members of Assumption BVM Parish. They are big Disney fans, and they also like to spend time at their home in Ocean City, N.J.
One of Banta’s side projects is her business, Designs to Cure. She makes wreaths for various occasions, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. That began after Carley, who is now 15, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was a toddler. Banta needed something to occupy her mind while her daughter was being treated, so she created the crafting business.
