North County is a wonderful place to work, live, play, and raise a family. Our schools and society have many linguistic, cultural, religious, ethnic, and racial issues. Small rural communities like ours are experiencing changing demographics just like large cities, and our leaders must confront these needs, perspectives, and challenges. How do we collectively address everyone and build up our community? Violence across the United States was the topic of my March Superintendent’s Council which included Atascadero school leadership, law enforcement, mental health professionals and social services. Multi-agency discussions from my March meeting served as a springboard for the May summit.