JANIE LEASK: We have quite a few questions. And, again, I apologize if I don't get to yours. Talk about education which we seem to have a lot of questions about education. And I think the microphones are on. Do you see programs such as the Alaska Scholars making a difference in Native students' success? And what can be the most helpful and motivating to students to complete their education? What -- specifically what can Anchorage businesses do?

GRETA GOTO: The last part of the question, what can Anchorage businesses do. We started last year through the efforts of Sarah Scammon and resident staff of a reading program with William Tyson Elementary School where we through the generosity of our board and Byron get an hour of pay time to go and read to the kids in this breakfast club. And it's focused on kids K through 3. A very simple thing. Very easy to do. But it gets you out to the community, into the school. We started that in I believe it was November and finished all the way to the end of the school year.

And just in that short period of time the kids were really coming around. And what we did was made breakfast with them. We read to them while they were eating. And then they read back to us. And just in that 45 minute period of time and over the five months, six months that we were there the principal Sam Kito -- not Sam.....

MS. LEASK: John Kito.

GRETA GOTO: John Kito was -- he said, you know, the kids really have improved in their reading skills, but I think the most important thing that the program did for them was to give them some self confidence and some enjoyment and some understanding that somebody else cares about them besides their parents. And I think that's something the business community can do. And we're working with a number of organizations. Nana Colt, Koniag Broadcasting. And I know there were two or three others that really kind of pitched in with us this last year and we'd really like to see that grow and develop. And it's an easy thing to do. And I bet Superintendent Comeau would be happy to help facilitate that.

MR. MALLOTT: The Alaska Scholars Program will make a difference. Any effort to treat kids as important to respect who they are, to try to challenge them, to create an opportunity to spend time not just with peers, but with adults is incredibly important. As a general proposition for the business community Ross Perot is credited in Texas, for example, a number of other states through their business round table and institutions, although Commonwealth North is unique, there are business institutions in virtually every state, some very large metropolitan areas, that look at the business communities' responsibility and obligations outside the framework of the economic.

And history, at least recent history has shown that where there is educational policy needing to be strengthened or systems needing to be moved in the right direction that the conscious and focused involvement of the business community has been critical to making that happen. And I think that's something to ponder here in Alaska. And it's not just about work force development. Where it has been successful it's looking at kids as, you know, the most important future asset we have as a society, not just as a work force.

MS. LEASK: You're doing well. Your hands are under the table so you're doing well. And just as a footnote, literacy as you all know is really important. And reading to kids whether they're your own children or somebody else's children can't be stressed enough. And so as Byron and Greta both said, and I'm sure that Carol will also echo spending time with young children reading to them is one of the best things that we can do.

So is First Alaskans working with the Anchorage School District to address some of the challenges that have been discussed here today?

MR. MALLOTT: We have been working with the Anchorage School District. Carol and her folks were very active and supportive in the three educational summits that First Alaskans hosted. We continue to have an ongoing working relationship. Carol and I chatted, for example, just prior to lunch about the need to get together. She has a few issues to settle before then. But we will and we look forward to a strong, vibrant relationship with the Anchorage School District.

MS. LEASK: What recommendations can you share to address improved high school graduation success for Alaska Native students?

MS. GOTO: That's a good question. And what we're finding -- well, let me back up a little bit. As a result of the K-12 education indicator's report that we've put out, we're going on our third year, one of the things that -- questions that keep coming up when we make those presentations out in the regions is exactly that question, what recommendations are there to improve the situation. Well, and I think the fact of the matter is that there isn't one single silver bullet that's going to solve the issue.

One of the things that we're finding in research that's been done outside state as well as what we're looking at here in-state is that, again, spending time with your kids when they're younger will keep that level of learning with them as they get older. To stay involved in the school as they get older is very important.

We are looking at and actually in conjunction with ISER with our internship program at First Alaskans Institute had 32 interns placed with various employers. And I see some of those employers here in the audience here today. We had two that are working through the Alaska Native Policy Center on a joint project with ISER looking at the -- what comprises success of Alaska Native students and what adds to that vitality. And one of the things -- it was a survey based research project.

And one of the things they were finding is that community is very, very important. And it's not just the school itself, but it's community. And we're going to be putting out some of those preliminary findings that our two research interns pulled together. Some fabulous work. One of the students is a Harvard Ph.D. candidate in education. And the other student is a psychology Master student here at the University so we're just so pleased with that work and the results that they're finding. And so we will be putting out some of those preliminary findings which will answer that question more definitively.

MS. LEASK: We have, of course, a couple of questions here regarding the drop-out rates as to why there are higher numbers for Alaska Native students. Is it family, community? Is it poor teachers, other factors? Is it television? Is the internet helping our hurting? Do we have any data on this?

MS. GOTO: The report that we commissioned back in 2001 looked at some of the factors that contribute to drop- out rates and it was a combination of all of the above. There were -- and they kind of grouped it into individual things going on with the students that might be affecting the ability to stay in school. Parental issues and then kind of community wide issues and school issues. So all three of those things combined kind of contribute to that rate. And, again, there's no single silver bullet that will correct the situation.

This is an area as Byron mentioned earlier that we want to getting behind the state, 7.8 percent, okay, we know what the drop-out rate is, but why? And we want to get more definitive in understanding that and working and collaborating with others that have that similar interest so that we can correct that situation. 'Cause these are kids, again, that are going to have an economic impact on all of us in this room.

United Way and Michelle Brown has presented to our organization on some of the work that they're doing, and she mentioned that one of the communities in the Lower 48 had just said okay, no more. We are going to deal with the drop-out issue. The community is going to get behind this and they did and they did a fantastic job. And so we're going to follow up with her and find out exactly what they did in the Lower 48.

MS. LEASK: I guess just an aside from that, too, it's not just a rural Native issue. I mean drop-outs and just the influences on drop-outs permeates every community in the state. And it really is a community issue.

One more regarding drop-outs. Is there any significant data about the statistics when you compare rural to urban schools with respect to their drop-out and/or graduation rates?

MS. GOTO: I'm trying to remember. We didn't see -- I'll be corrected it I'm wrong, but I don't think we saw a real significant difference. Actually in the Anchorage School District some of the drop-out rates were a little bit higher or about the same as rural communities, so there didn't seem to be a real significant difference, Janie.

MS. LEASK: Moving on to employment. Are the trends in employment as encouraging as the trend in high school enrollment for Alaska Natives?

MS. GOTO: That's a tough question.....What we saw in the employment, I'm not quite sure what the context is of the question. In the employment data we saw that a lot of the positions were in clerical, operative craft positions. The numbers of positions in professional kinds of positions, legal, professors, marketing, finance, those kinds of positions are not quite at the local that we'd like to see. State government enrollment -- not enrollment, but state government employment was at a significantly lower percentage rate than the total Native population as a percentage. So I'm not sure that I can say yes personally, but that's my personal opinion.

MR. MALLOTT: I'd like to just mention anecdotally that we have come a long way. I recall back in the days of involvement with the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that one of the things we that AFN had to do at the time was to bring a group to Washington, D.C. to testify to the idea that we were competent to manage our own affairs. And we brought back, for example, two Wein Air Alaska pilots, captains, jet captains in their four stripe uniforms to testify. We brought back one of our leaders, Cecil Barnes, from Cordova to show that we were successful enough to be in debt. He waved a document, said this is the mortgage document on my home in Anchorage, that's how successful I am.

And as we look at where the ANCSA corporations are today, the range of involvement, you know, just flowed off Greta's tongue the notion of a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard, one of our interns with a Master's degree candidate at the University of Alaska, but as the question I think implies there's a vast range here in terms of our involvement in the work force. And those are numbers that we plan to get behind.

But every time I see Governor Hickel I just want to wax about the old days. When he was Secretary of Interior and Governor and formed the Alaska Native Claims task force to allow the use of state dollars to have Native folks from around the state to get together when there really weren't vehicles to allow that to happen.

MS. LEASK: Another question regarding the unemployment rate. Does this include or exclude Natives in remote villages who may not have participated in the cash economy? And we hear an awful lot about the under-counted are those who have simply dropped off the rolls. So the number that you cited did that include what portion of.....

MS. GOTO: That number came from the census data and I'm looking at Scott because I'm hoping that he'll tell me if I'm right or wrong, but that number did come from the census data so it's self-reported. So those numbers, whatever the person reported would be what gets sent into the census. And so that's what that statistic was based upon.

MS. LEASK: Okay. Talk about statistics. What statistical differences between Native and non-Natives are based on geography and a subsistence lifestyle? Do non-Native demographics in rural Alaska match closely with the Native data?

MR. MALLOTT: Just anecdotally there are things going on out there. And it's part of what we and others will try to get behind. For example, I've had conversations with Mark Hamilton because the University of Alaska and I think we all again anecdotally have noted that the number of Alaska Native women entering both the work force, leadership positions, education as a percentage of the total Native population is much higher than that of men. What does that mean? You could, I think, make the argument at least partially that it has to do with geography.

Native men in rural Alaska having more opportunity to live a subsistence lifestyle, to find those local jobs that are -- I hate to sound sexist, that are typically male that, you know, ditch digging, doing manual labor, so forth, which you find in rural Alaska and essentially staying there. And of course, you know, that's only scratching the surface on a statistical basis so it's those kinds of questions and understanding better what is really happening out there in order to allow us to be responsive to it both within and without the Native community. That's the reason we're doing all of this.

MS. LEASK: Regarding work force development what data and policy has been identified to help us design effective work force development plans that balance career development with the desires to maintain traditional lifestyles? Can we address the migration of rural career workers to urban centers?

MR. MALLOTT: I think we can. And I think that there is a history out there of trying to be responsive and there's huge opportunity yet to be mined. For example, when I was with the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation which is really part of state government, but not totally. We were exempt from a number of personnel rules and some other items. And so we were able to do some innovate things in the work force. Job sharing, you know, to create flexibility just to meet work force and lifestyle needs in Juneau.

Quite frankly, there was a kind of a reaction from the total work force that we were out of step and I think all of that has been taken away which is literally in my judgment stupid, you know. We ought to be looking at ways to create maximum total productivity and efficiency in the work force and the bottom right way to do that is to make them happen. Simple, isn't it?

But the oil industry, I think, has been particularly responsive in trying to create and maintain a rural work force, again, through how they schedule work time on and off. And I think also that it bears looking to by the overall business community because if you hire local and keep locals happy and efficient and productive that's the lowest cost work force you're ever going to have. And so it is a real issue. There's much opportunity yet there to be delved into.

MS. LEASK: In the interest of time there was a wonderful question here regarding the relationship of maintaining Alaska Native language, culture and healthy communities. The one that I guess I would like to end on was a political and sociological question. And the question goes to the core of this report. While it is quite useful to have a stats report on the geographic, educational, economic and other data on Alaska Natives don't policy approaches that run under Native versus non-Native framework further separate Native Alaskans as a separate box or category to be dealt with? Is this necessarily a good thing to do?

MR. MALLOTT: That's what I was trying to get at in my comment about we're looking at this in a focused kind of way as Alaska Native, but that's not the goal. The goal is to allow the Alaskan society to evolve in such a way that those differences go away. And so that the differences that we have are in our cultures, in our values, in our beliefs. Again, not to create any kind of separateness, if that's a word, but to celebrate who we are in a very unique natural and physical and human environment. We are probably going to be over time even more than California, the most diverse state in our Union. And there are still a few of us who have got to get used to that. But I think in the main Alaskans recognize that and work at it and will celebrate it.

You notice my hand is starting to come up.

MS. LEASK: Yes, I know.

MR. MALLOTT: But, you know, in my 40 years of being involved.....

MS. LEASK: It's okay.

MR. MALLOTT: .....in these kinds of issues every fiber in my being is dedicated to the notion of making us one. Making us one in the sense, I think we all understand as Americans, but also being able to celebrate the differences in us in powerful and reverent and respectful kinds of ways.

MS. LEASK: Well said. Okay. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you again, Byron and Greta, for being here today. You delivered a very important message that Alaskans need to hear. As we all know and as Alyeska starts meetings off with both a safety moment and a cultural moment. And today in the cultural moment, I said life, whether you're talking about work life, personal life, whatever it's all about relationships. And to understand each other really as a state and as citizens of the state we have to understand different parts of our state and the make-up of our state. And this presentation today and the work that is being done and has been done by Commonwealth North and other organizations to really bring some knowledge to both urban and rural Alaska I think is very important.

And I really appreciate the work that is done by First Alaskans. And I have chocolates for Greta and a gift certificate from the Captain Cook for Byron. And, again, thank you so much. (Applause)

So in closing I'd like to, again, thank our underwriters for today, BP and Alyeska Pipeline. And speaking of underwriting we have -- we're looking for five additional sponsors of our health care, Alaska Health Care Round Table which is really gathering momentum. I'm sure that a number of you have read editorials in the paper. There's been stories on television, so there's been a lot of emphasis and a lot of publicity regarding the health care. And it comes at a point in time where health care is really important and the cost of health care is really important.

So I would urge those of you who want to become involved in discussions about what to do about the rising health care costs and health care in Alaska, to please -- there's information at the door, please see Duane Heyman, our executive director.

We're working over a number of very exciting events for you in the next couple of months and we'll be getting that information out to you as soon as they're fully developed. And, meanwhile, if you are a guest here today, I know that there's very many of you in the audience who are guests, welcome. We really appreciate your attending forums such as this. We would welcome you to become members of Commonwealth North. And there's also information by the door for that.

So in closing, we hope that you would take a couple of minutes, I know we've run a little bit of over time, but to take a couple of minutes to chat among each other since there are so many of you here in this one room before you go back to your busy days. Thank you so much for attending. We stand adjourned.

(END OF PROCEEDINGS)