Janet Schieber, 57, Phila. schoolteacher

Janet Mischultz Schieber, 57, a teacher in Philadelphia public schools for more than 30 years, died of inflammatory breast cancer Friday at Abington Memorial Hospital.

Mrs. Schieber, who lived in East Oak Lane, began her career at Hill School in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia. Her husband, David, said it was a rough neighborhood and she was so inexperienced her principal was sure she would quit after a few months. At the end of the year, the principal admitted that he was surprised how well she had done.

Later, Mrs. Schieber taught at Blaine School in North Philadelphia for 15 years. For 11 years, her principal there was Madeline Cartwright. In the early 1990s, Cartwright coauthored For the Children: Lessons From a Visionary Principal. In the book, Cartwright cited Mrs. Schieber, who spent her entire career teaching the lower grades, as someone who over the years learned to understand her students and the community and "turned [that] understanding to the task of teaching."

While at Blaine, Mrs. Schieber was the recipient of the Ruth Hayre Community Service Award, named in honor of a former president of the Philadelphia Board of Education.

Mrs. Schieber went on to teach at Creighton School in Northeast Philadelphia. For the last seven years, until becoming ill four months ago, she taught third graders at Rhawnhurst School.

In the summer, she assisted her husband in his business, Jonathan Best, a gourmet grocer in Chestnut Hill and the Reading Terminal. Her favorite vacation destination was St. John's in the Virgin Islands, her husband said, and she promised her family that they would plan a trip there when she recovered.

Mrs. Schieber graduated from Olney High School in 1969 and attended Community College of Philadelphia, where she met her future husband. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from Temple University in 1974.

A dedicated Phillies and Eagles fan, she loved nothing more than watching the games with her sons, Jonathan and Michael, and her husband, he said.

In addition to her husband and her sons, Mrs. Schieber is survived by a daughter, Colleen, and three sisters.

A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Abington Friends Meeting, 520 Meetinghouse Rd., Jenkintown. Friends may call from 9 a.m. Burial will be in Hillside Cemetery, Roslyn.