St. Gregory Catholic School Principal Becky Chenevert Andrew D. Brosig/Tyler Morning Telegraph

For Becky Chenevert, new principal of St. Gregory Cathedral School, working in the education field started early as a child when she learned how to deal with kids while helping out in her grandmother’s day care center in Irving.

“My first job was in seventh grade doing dishes and toilets at the day care for my grandmother and my first check was $36 a week,” Ms. Chenevert said.

She got her first taste of teaching when her grandmother let her teach a 3-year-old class.

“I had my 3-year-olds doing exactly what the kindergarten children were doing. I thought ‘I can teach and I like this,'” Ms. Chenevert recalled.

But when she first got out of college, she was thinking about being a probation officer to help youths until her best friend’s dad, who works in the Dallas Police Department, showed her what she would be doing. Then she decided to become a teacher.

She has a bachelor’s degree and teacher certification from The University of Texas at Arlington and a master’s degree and mid-management administrator certification from Stephen F. Austin State University. She has also studied at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

Ms. Chenevert has been in education 30 years.

“I always thought I might someday have my own school. I kind of have my own school now; I just don’t own it,” she said with a laugh about being appointed principal of St. Gregory.

Ms. Chenevert came to St. Gregory from serving as principal of Wise Elementary Fine Arts Magnet School in Chapel Hill ISD. She has also been principal of St. Mary’s Catholic School in Longview, Pine Tree Elementary School and Harleton Elementary School.

This is her 24th year as a principal. “I love what I do,” she said, saying she saw years ago that by being a principal, she could affect teachers, groups of students and a whole school.

“I believe in my teachers and I think they need to have some direction in what they do in the classroom. I like to guide them and I like to lead them and try to encourage them to learn different things,” Ms. Chenevert said.

Still, she said teachers need to be allowed to work their magic and she gives them ownership in their decisions. “I’ve never been disappointed; my teachers are always good,” Ms. Chenevert said.

She started out teaching in Mansfield and then went to Pinetree as a teacher of academically gifted and talented third- and fourth-graders before stepping up to the principal role.

When the principal position came open at St. Gregory, Ms. Gregory said, she felt called to the school and also felt she needed to give back to the community which had been supportive when her only child died of cancer at 14.

“We moved to Tyler to put her in Gorman because we didn’t have a Catholic high school in Longview and nine months later, she was gone. The Gorman community wrapped themselves around her and helped her through that hard time and they wrapped themselves around us too,” Ms. Chenevert said.

As St. Gregory principal, she said, “I feel like I’m where I need to be. I love the staff. I love the community. I love the parents. I love the kids. I’m truly where I need to be. I feel like I’m at home.”

Ms. Chenevert said she is going to try to “build” the St. Gregory community. “I would like for every Catholic that wants (their child) to attend St. Gregory to be able to do that,” she said. “If everybody would chip in and help support that, we could grow the Catholic community.”

Ms. Cheevert wants St. Gregory to be the best school in the area. “We’ve got the staff here to do it. These teachers are here because they want to be here. You can do wonders with a team that wants to be here,” she said.

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