PTA volunteer named to Everett school board seat

Traci Mitchell, who works at Valley General Hospital in Monroe, has been appointed to the Everett School Board to replace former board member Jessica Olson, who resigned last month.

Mitchell, 43, lives in the Seattle Hill Road area of the school district. She manages pharmacy services and infection control at the Monroe hospital. She is vice president of the executive board of the Everett Public Schools Foundation and is a PTA volunteer at Gateway Middle School. She has a master’s degree in health care administration from the University of Washington.

Mitchell will fill out the remaining two years of Olson’s six-year term. Mitchell said she hasn’t decided whether she will seek election to a full term on the school board.

The decision to appoint Mitchell came at the end of a meeting Monday that lasted more than six hours, during which five people selected as finalists for the school board seat were interviewed.

“I’m overwhelmed,” Mitchell said minutes after the school board announced its decision. “I have a passion for education.”

This is the second school board seat that was vacated following a resignation. In December, Jeff Russell, the former school board president, resigned for personal reasons. Last month, Caroline Mason was selected to replace Russell.

Mitchell also had applied to be appointed to Russell’s seat. When she was not selected for that post, said she would join the group of candidates being considered to be appointed to Olson’s seat.

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.

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