Longtime Broward schools principal dies at 62
Aimee Zekofsky, a longtime Broward County principal who developed a passion for helping those in need, has died. Shewas 62.
Zekofsky, who died Monday at her Coral Springs home, led West Hollywood Elementary from 2009 until last summer,when she took a leave of absence to fight ovarian cancer. She had previously spent 11 years as principal of Apollo Middle in Hollywood.
“She was an incredibly passionate educatorwho had a real strength and love for kids who were financially challenged or had special needs,” said friend Jody Perry, a former principal who nowoversees the district’s charter schools office. “It’s a tremendous loss to the community.”
About 95 percent of students at West Hollywood live in poverty, and didn’t always have warm clothes during winter cold spells, so she kept a room full of clothes for them to wear, said Eddie Aguilar, who served as her assistant principal last school year.
“She also had a food bank for whenever parents missed a paycheck and needed food,” said Aguilar, who is nowprincipal at Oakridge Elementary in Hollywood . “She was as much a social worker as she was a principal.”
She would often spend her Saturdays helping homeless families find places to live, and she would buy them necessities
from the dollar store, said her close friend, Laurie Seperson, a guidance counselor atWest Hollywood Elementary.
Friends also remember her as focused on health. She loved yoga, Pilates, sprouts and organic food. If she saw Aguillar drink a diet soda, she would ask him ,“Why are you drinking that poison?’ ” he recalls.
Perry said she had a strongsense of spirituality, “a real belief thatwewere here for a reason.”
Zekofsky was a native of Puerto Rico and received her bachelor’s degree in San Juan. She started teaching at Broward schools in 1985, at Sunrise Middle in Fort Lauderdale. She served as an assistant principal at New River Middle in Fort Lauderdale and Indian Ridge MiddleinDavie before being promoted to principal at Apollo Middle in 1998.
At Apollo, she helped create a successful dropout prevent program known as STARS, or Students Taking Action Realize Success. It consisted of tutoring, counseling and other activities.
She had two children from a previous marriage: Ralph Dominguez, who survives her, and Kristian Dominguez, who died of cancer in1998 at age16. She married her current husband, Khushroo Daruwalla, on June 8, 2016, weeks before her cancer diagnosis, Seperson said.
“She knew she had to fight for her surviving son and her husband. She wanted to make it until their first anniversary,” Seperson said.
Amemorial is planned for 6:30 p.m. Thursday atCalvary Lighthouse United at 1775 S. FlamingoRoad inDavie.