After just one year as an elected Seattle Public Schools board director, West Seattle/South Park (District 6) rep Gina Topp is the board’s new president. She was elected unanimously last night, the only director nominated to take over the job. You can see her post-election comments three hours and 26 minutes into the meeting recording; she called the board presidency an “awesome” and “heavy” responsibility that she is “excited” to take on. Topp also observed the now-scrapped school-closure process “did some damage in our communities” so “we hae some work to do to regain trust.” But Topp added that there was a bit of a silver lining to that process too – it “highlighted how impactful our schools are in our communities,” and she offered words of gratitude for educators. Her presidency started immediately after the vote. Other board members elected to leadership roles last night: Evan Briggs of Northeast Seattle as vice president and Joe Mizrahi as member-at-large.