City Commission - Special Meeting

Good evening. Coconut Creek students and families. What's going on? How are you? Alright. Gonna call the meeting to order. 2026Dash0514SP. As we begin, we kindly ask that all mobile devices be silenced. To ensure the best possible sound quality, please speak clearly and directly into the microphone, and remember to mute your microphone when you're not speaking. Should anyone experience difficulty hearing at any time, please raise your hand, and a hearing device will be provided to you.

Thank you for your cooperation. Clerk, please call the roll. Commissioner Riedel? Here. Commissioner Welch? Here. Commissioner Raley?

Here.

Vice Mayor Brody. Here. Mayor Wasserman. Here. City Manager Rose. I know you're in the room. She's there. Okay. City Attorney Piper.

Here.

Thank you. We're gonna now all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God and indivisible, and the liberty of justice for all.

This meeting is being conducted live with a physical quorum present. The material for today's meeting is available online at coconutcreek.gov. And the meeting is being broadcast live on the city's website and Creek TV YouTube channel. If you haven't already, please silent your mobile devices. If you must take a phone call, please excuse yourself and step outside. Thank you.

All right. Welcome to the seventeenth Annual Student Awards Ceremony, recognizing exemplary elementary and middle school Coconut Creek students. I do want to say, apologize. We have a packed house today. Apologize for the lack of seating. I'm gonna We're gonna have a meeting with Doctor. Fleming about maybe using a high school auditorium for next year because you guys are busting at the seams. So, we didn't expect this this amazing turnout, but we're here to celebrate and we're gonna make an amazing experience for your students and you. Today is a day to recognize our amazing students. But first, let's give it up for all the parents and families in the audience.

Their dedication and hard work to get you here. You always value, always appreciate it, always show love because they're trying to get you to the finish line. Also, let's give it up for our school administrators and teachers in the audience. What's up? We know that a lot of teachers spend more time with your students than you do because they're there eight hours a day, and we're all working, doing so much. So, it up for our teachers. They're outstanding. And, really, we're so lucky here in Coconut Creek. I already gave him a shout out, but shout out to North Regional Superintendent, doctor Germaine Fleming. Come on down.

He's gonna give us a couple good words of wisdom.

Good evening mayor, vice mayor, commission. I just want to give greetings on behalf of the school board and our superintendent, Doctor. Howard Hepburn. I'm Jermaine Fleming, the north region superintendent. And I do apologize for the audience for my back to be turned.

I'd much rather face them. It's just remarkable how many students and families are here tonight being acknowledged for their accomplishments. And I just really want to give a great round of applause for the parents for supporting our students in their achievements tonight. And I certainly don't take it for granted that this commission, under Desmair's leadership, wraps your arms so tightly around schools, students, and families around education, because this is not a normal scene. So, I just want to tip my hat to you all.

I see you in the community. I see you engage with schools. And, it's no mistake that they're all here tonight because of you. So again, congratulations to the class of 2026. I know you guys, a lot of you guys are moving to the next great band, and salute to you. Thank you.

Doctor. Fleming, thanks for your support. We appreciate that you're here tonight. All right. So, I'm going to turn the ceremony over now to our Government Affairs Manager, Bernadette Hughes. She's going to guide us through this amazing evening. And, the floor is yours.

Good evening. Thank you so much. I turned myself off. Off to a good start. My name is Bernadette Hughes, and I'm the government affairs manager for the city of Coconut Creek.

And it is my honor to welcome you to the seventeenth annual Student Awards Ceremony, and it's just so great to see everyone here. We are proud to have so many high performing students attending Coconut Creek Schools, and I am honored to present the names of our accomplished elementary and middle school students this evening, students who are joined by their outstanding principals, administrators, and teachers, and parents. The students I'm about to call were selected by their schools as students who excelled in academics, leadership, and character this past year. Each of them truly deserves to be recognized for their outstanding accomplishments. Now, students, when I call the names of your school, if you could, please come up to the right side of the stage, which is my left along that window over there, and just go ahead and wait until I call your name to come up to receive your certificate from the mayor.

I will call your names in alphabetical order, so you can as you get lined up, if you could go ahead and get lined up in alphabetical order, that would be great. And then the mayor will give you your certificate of achievement, and then you should remain on the stage with your classmates, the principals, and the teachers for a group photo. As you leave the stage, you will be presented with a very special award from the city of Coconut Creek. So you're gonna enter the stage over here, shake hands with the mayor and the city commission, take a really great picture, have your parents take pictures of you, and then exit on that side to receive your award. Yes.

And the mayor and the commission are going to be up on stage to take the photo with you. Now I do have a special request for the parents and the family members. I know you are extremely proud of your children, your grandchildren, your brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, all of the above. But in the interest of all of our time, especially yours, I ask that you please hold your applause until the entire class gets up here on stage. So it won't be long, I promise.

There's only a couple of kids in each class, but if you could hold your applause until all the kids are up on stage, that would be fantastic. I know it will be hard, but we have a lot of schools to call out today. And once each class is on stage, you'll be given time to applaud, come up, and even take pictures. So now let's go ahead and get started with our first school of the evening, Coconut Creek Elementary School. Yes.

I'm sorry. So coconut I'm sorry. The k through a academy of excellence. Principal Jocelyn Reid is here. Okay.

The first student Okay. Okay, you ready? All right. Our first student is Rudy Benitez. We knew it was going to happen.

We knew it was going to happen. Are you ready? Alright. Our next student is Jaziah Brown. Jakari Davis.

Christopher Gonzales Hunter Milder Mariana Ordonez Arenga Kyle Suarez. Eileen Suarez. Estupinan. I hope I didn't kill that too bad. Luca Talia Ferro.

And Emily West. Parents, go for it. Give them a round of applause. Okay. We have an amazing photographer who's gonna help the kids get lined up and take a photo, and then the parents are gonna be able to come up and take their own photo.

And if there are any teachers or administrators in the audience, please join us. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay. While they're finishing up taking photos, if we can have Liberty Elementary School line up along the window.

They they they nope. And for those of you that ran ran away really, really quick, we're giving away a trophy to all of of the winners, so make sure you come back up.

Okay.

Okay. Liberty Elementary. And if there are any teachers or assistant principals or anyone else who wants to come up with Liberty, please feel free. Alright. I'm gonna go ahead and start calling the names.

First, Aubreyelle Bain, Messiah Bonilla McKee, Skyler Brown, Sarah Francois, Kamari Houghton, Zoe Hessler, Andres Perez Villefene, Liam Richards, Kylie Thomas, and DuVonne Thompson. Parents, give them a round of applause. Now our amazing photographer is gonna get everybody lined up to take a photo, and then afterwards, you'll all be able to come take a quick pic if you want. Okay. Our next school, if you can go ahead and get lined up, is North Broward Prep Elementary.

And I know principal Kathleen Melanowski is here. If you can go ahead and come up on the stage. And if there are any other teachers or administrators from NorthBire Prep that wanna be a part of it, come on up. Alright. Okay.

Our first student from North Broward Prep Elementary is Miles Chris. Chris Cunningham. Ava Dionisio. Hannah Gredzian. Ari Krueger, Aidan Moskoff, Jacob Rosen, Ellie Celan, Lily Sherwood, and Joaquin Villagomez.

Give them a round of applause. Okay. Our our next school of the evening is Tradewinds Elementary School, and assistant principal Natalie Brantley is here. And any other teachers or administrators that would like to come up? Come on up.

And the students can start lining up for another school. They didn't tell us. And Doctor. Ellie is here. Fantastic.

Okay. From Tradewinds Elementary, we have Everly Dyer, Savannah Edwards, Joshua Gomez. I know. That's why I'm calling I'm going to call the names. Okay.

Joshua Gomez. We may not have a lot of kids here, we're still going go ahead and call the names. Adrieli Guadarama, Adam Hatter, London Palmer, Madeleine Petitos, Santiago Trevino, Lily Vasquez, and Jace Winner. Let's give them a round of applause.

Alright.

Our our next school is Winston Park Elementary with principal Devin O'Neil. And any teachers or administrators, come on up. And if the students can line up. Okay. Way to go, Winston Park.

We're gonna go ahead and get started. We have Elijah Anastal. Madison Atwood, Gabriela Boyce, Nevada Gray, Patricia Hidalgo, Maya Himaden, Samantha Kaysom. Leah Maxwell. Christopher McMahon Werner.

And Sofia Rodriguez. Congratulations. Middle school.

Sorry.

Thank you. Very

good. Alright. Okay.

Before we move on to the middle school students, if miss Ellie is still here, could you come back up? We have one more student from Tradewinds. We got another one. Come on up. No.

Okay. I'm gonna go ahead and bring up Joshua Gomez. And and Santiago, if you're here, come on up, we'll get you in the photo too. Congratulations, Joshua.

And

we're bringing Santiago up for the photo. Congratulations. Thank you, miss Ellie. Alright. We're moving on to middle school students.

And these students were being recognized recognized for excellence in academics and leadership, and they'll be receiving a certificate of excellence as well as a trophy. So, again, as the students' names are called, line up on my left, your right. You'll get your certificate, take your photo, and head off on my right, your left, to get your award. So I'm gonna go ahead and get started with Lions Creek Middle School, and I know principal Eddie is here. So if you could come up on stage.

And any teachers or administrators from Lions Creek that wanna come up, come on up. All right. We're ready to get started. We're going to start off with Tanora Belval, Riley Carroll, Isaiah Gidde. Penny Gomez.

Shawn Howell. Jael Lewis. Camden Matot, Shannon Marino, Nicole Santana, and Jaylen Toussaint. Let's give them all a round of applause. And while they're getting ready for their photo, if you parents wanna line up in the aisle so you can take your own photos.

Thank you. Okay. Our next school is Margate Middle School. So if the students can start to line up along the window, that would be great. And assistant principal Crystal Coke is here.

Come on up. Okay. I am. Alright. Our first student is Kayla Ayn, followed by Kamara Allen, Marvince Alphonse, Cesar Alvarez, Landon Bryan, Gianna Gonzales, Skalange Jean, Kwasi Kinole, Jason Octavius, and Nicholas Olive Oliveira Pedra.

Let's give them all a round of applause. Go for it. Parents, go ahead and line up in the aisle while we get the students ready for their photos. Okay. Our next school is North Broward Prep Middle School, and principal Carrie Diaz is here.

If you could line up.

And

any other teachers or administrators from North Broward are welcome to come up. Yeah. And then I'll say a few words. And and you kind of Okay. Looks like we're ready.

Our first student is Abbe Agarwal, followed by Luciano Belizam, Jack Evans, Leila Gersten, Dylan Lovito, Riley Renard, Bryn Resnick, Sunny Rutu, and Stevie Slavin. Let's give them a great round of applause. Parents, come on up to the aisle while your kids are getting ready for their photo. Okay. I don't wanna get you so excited that you leave because the mayor would like to say a couple of closing comments, but I would like to thank you for taking the time to join here us here tonight at City Hall to honor these amazing students.

You are very welcome to stick around and take photos with the mayor and the commission up here on the dais if you like. On behalf of this entire city and the city commission, we wish all of our students a safe and wonderful summer. We really hope to see them back here. As you know, we have elementary, middle, and we also have high school awards as well. We're gonna be doing those at the commission meeting at 07:00, so perhaps we'll be seeing your students again next year. Wish you a wonderful evening, and I'm gonna turn it over to the mayor.

I have to say a huge shout out to Bernadette for put helping us put this on tonight, please. And even a more special shout out to all of you who stayed through the entire ceremony, even if your student got it first. You all are getting a special pride. No. I'm just kidding. But, sincerely, we've got on behalf of the city commission, thank you for being here. Thanks for sticking it out with us, and, we'll see you next year. Thanks again. Motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.