MURRIETA —— As a former teacher and now an educational researcher and consultant, Sheree Jederberg has made a career out of educating students and helping schools improve.

So it seemed a logical next step to her to seek a seat on the Murrieta Valley Unified School District board of education, her first stab at becoming an elected official.

"People want to make sure that whoever they elect will have their best interests in mind," said Jederberg, 48. "That is going to be my focus, the community's needs."

Murrieta officials need to make sure that schools are built quickly to handle the district's booming student population growth, and that teachers in the classroom are given the resources they need to help students perform well academically, she said.

"I am very much like a teacher," Jederberg said. "Students come first."

She is running for one of two seats on the board, challenging seven other candidates: incumbent Kris Thomasian, attorney Richard Ackerman, small-business owner Robin Crist, small-business owner Jan Fletcher, teacher Jacqueline Hanny, market researcher Wyatt Haupt, and pastor John Wells.

The other seat up for grabs belongs to Austin Linsley, who is not running for re-election.

Jederberg has lived in Murrieta for about 3 1/2 years, and two of her children attend Murrieta schools. Careerwise, she has worked in the education field for a couple of decades, starting in the classroom as an English teacher at Temecula Valley High School in the 1980s. She has also worked as an administrator in San Diego County and on the East Coast.

"I've taught everything from English as a second language to Advanced Placement English," she said, adding that overall she has experience with public, private and charters schools.

Locally, Jederberg served as principal of Choice 2000, a Perris-based virtual charter school program, from September 2002 to June 2003. Jederberg said she took the job knowing it was a temporary employment contract.

Currently, she said she works as a consultant with several state-approved companies that assist school districts, especially under-performing ones, to improve their test scores and classroom instruction.

Jederberg said that when she works with a school district, she analyzes their test scores then meets with everyone from the superintendent to the teachers, educating them on the latest strategies in instructional leadership, effective teaching skills and classroom delivery methods.

Kate Laferriere, principal of the Palmdale-based Cactus School, a middle school, said Jederberg has been working with her school for about a year and described the candidate as spunky and dynamic.

"She is a pretty strong advocate for improving instruction," Laferriere said. "You can't change (student) demographics, you can't change their background, but you can always work on what you are providing in the classroom. Sometimes that's not easy information for people to take."

Jederberg would likely make a good school board member, Laferriere said, in the sense that she understands what's going on in the classroom and also has a background in administration.

"She knows what teachers need to meet all the requirements coming down from the state," Laferriere said.

Gordon Carlson, a former public school assistant superintendent for a district in central California and a colleague of Jederberg's with the company Data Works, said that he rarely offers compliments, "but in this particular case I have gotten to know this lady and she is outstanding."

"She knows what good teaching looks like," Carlson said. "She knows how to go about implementing rigorous standards."

Jederberg said her experience is one of the reasons she believes she would make a good school board member. She said the board could benefit from her background, and that she recently earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern California.

"If you were to ask someone who knows me, they would say I always have an ear to listen to the needs of whoever it is I am with," she said. "I am very honest and caring and I always maintain a high sense of integrity."

Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jkabbany@californian.com.