By SUZANNE DOWNING
July 18, 2026 – Alaska Gateway School District Board President Lisa Conrad narrowly survived a recall election, holding onto her seat by just seven votes in one of the closest local elections of the year.
Certified results from the Alaska Division of Elections show 136 voters opposed recalling Conrad, while 129 voted to remove her from the board. The “no” side prevailed with 51.32% of the vote, compared with 48.68% supporting the recall.
The June 30 special election involved Conrad’s Seat C in Section II of Regional Educational Attendance Area 16, which includes the Tok area.
Turnout was low. Of 1,298 registered voters, only 266 cast ballots, for a turnout rate of 20.49%. A total of 265 valid votes were recorded on the recall question, meaning one voter who participated did not cast a valid vote in that race.
The seven-vote margin amounted to slightly more than one-half of 1% of all registered voters in the section.
Conrad remains on the Alaska Gateway School District board, where she is listed as board president. The rural eastern Interior district operates eight schools serving Tok, Northway, Tetlin, Tanacross, Mentasta Lake, Eagle and other communities near the Alaska Highway and Canadian border.
The recall effort began earlier this year and required only 22 valid signatures from qualified voters in the section to qualify for the ballot.
As The Alaska Story previously reported, recall sponsors accused Conrad of exceeding the authority of an individual board member by signing a contract with an outside law firm without approval from the full board or the knowledge of the superintendent.
A second allegation concerned Conrad’s handling of a censure motion in February 2025. Petitioners alleged that she prevented the board from acting on the motion and failed to follow parliamentary procedure and board policy.
The Division of Elections determined those allegations were legally sufficient to appear in a recall petition. That determination did not establish that the allegations were true; under Alaska’s recall process, the division evaluates whether the claims, if assumed to be true, would constitute legally permissible grounds for recall.
Other accusations submitted by the recall sponsors were rejected. The division found that allegations involving possible Open Meetings Act violations were too vague and that a claim that Conrad ignored public concerns did not qualify as misconduct, incompetence or failure to perform a prescribed duty.
In the end, the voters who participated were nearly evenly divided. Just four voters changing their votes from “no” to “yes” would have produced a different outcome.
Instead, Conrad survived the challenge and will remain in office following the certification of the June 30 results.
