{"id":933570,"date":"2026-10-15T05:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T05:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/933570\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T05:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T05:22:12","slug":"barrie-sketchley-dead-beloved-tdsb-principal-was-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/933570\/","title":{"rendered":"Barrie Sketchley dead: ‘Beloved’ TDSB principal was 85"},"content":{"rendered":"

The longest-serving principal at Canada\u2019s largest school board<\/a> has died.<\/p>\n

Barrie Sketchley, an administrator with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) for 42 years, was 85 years old. <\/p>\n

Rosedale Heights School for the Arts (RHSA), which he lead for more than three decades, shared the news of Sketchley\u2019s death in a letter sent home to the school community on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with great sadness we announce the passing of Mr. Barrie Sketchley, Rosedale Heights School of the Arts\u2019 beloved Principal for 34 years,\u201d current principal Joe Ghassibe wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarrie\u2019s love and support of The Arts, his students, and his staff will be felt in our school building forever. His kindness and compassion, his tenderness and charisma, as well as his magnificent sense of humour, have created the community we now represent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Barrie Sketchley Toronto principal Barrie Sketchley is seen in these undated images. (Supplied) <\/p>\n

During a May 2023 interview with CTV News Toronto, Sketchley said he walked into a classroom in 1965 and \u201cnever wanted to look back and I\u2019ve loved all of those years in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love working with young people, seeing them mature, watching where they\u2019re going, helping them get there,\u201d Sketchley said at that time. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of laughter along the way as well as tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Affectionately known to some as Sketch, he worked at Eastdale and Bloor collegiates before coming to Rosedale Heights School of the Arts. At that time, it was a vocational school known as Castle Frank, Sketchley told CTV News Toronto during the aforementioned interview. It then became Rosedale Heights Secondary School before evolving into RHSA in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis leadership empowered staff to make an important change at Rosedale Heights – to turn the school into a School of the Arts, where all identities were included and affirmed. Barrie was a pioneer,\u201d Ghassibe said in the Oct. 13 letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only did he help create Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, he also worked at a vocational business school for girls (at Bickford Centre), and the Urban Studies Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board wanted to transfer Sketchley to Harbord Collegiate in the fall of 2025, but students and parents protested, and he was able to remain at RHSA<\/a> until his retirement planned for the end of that school year. Sketchley, however, left the school last May due to cancer. <\/p>\n

\"\"Rally to reinstate beloved principal at Toronto\u2019s Rosedale Heights School of the Arts <\/p>\n

For his retirement, the school\u2019s parent council commissioned two former students, Nina Djordjevic and Elizabeth Ford, to create a short film in Sketchley\u2019s honour. Sadly, the beloved educator, who was known to attend every single school event, missed the screening at RHSA\u2019s annual film festival because of his illness.<\/p>\n

The school newspaper and the yearbook featured colourful farewell tributes for Sketchley. <\/p>\n

Tasha Kheiriddin, co-chair of RHSA\u2019s Parent Council, said the school community sent Sketchley boxes of get well and farewell cards after he became sick and left suddenly.<\/p>\n

\"\"Article, yearbook tributes Barrie Sketchley Beloved TDSB principal Barrie Sketchley, of Rosedale Heights School of the Arts was sent off with an article in the school newspaper and a tribute in the 2025-2026 yearbook. (Supplied) <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a principal like no other. Mr. Sketchley was someone who created this culture of kindness, inclusivity, acceptance, and a love of learning,\u201d she told CP24 late Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe inspired everyone to do their best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kheiriddin, who is running for TDSB Trustee in Ward 7, said Sketchley was also a noted \u201cchampion of the arts\u201d at the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole TDSB owes him a great debt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A legacy of \u2018empowerment\u2019: principal<\/p>\n

Ghassibe said his predecessor\u2019s legacy is \u201cone of empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBarrie truly believed (and knew) that children are our future. Thousands of students (as well as families and staff) have benefitted from his leadership, support, and love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will miss Barrie\u2019s leadership, his smiles, his love, his wonderful stories of the amazing life he led such as taking his first commercial flight to the U.K. in 1957, his wonderful ski trips, as well as the road trips he loved to take. We honour Barrie today, tomorrow, and forever at Rosedale Heights School of the Arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tributes pouring in online<\/p>\n

Dozens of Sketchley\u2019s former colleagues and students have taken to social media to express their sadness following the death of the \u201cheart and soul\u201d of RHSA.<\/p>\n

He is being remembered as supportive, non-judgemental, understanding, kind-hearted, and generous, a true leader, a caring soul and a one-of-a kind person and mentor, who \u201cfostered an environment of acceptance, love, and compassion for every person that walked through Rosedale\u2019s front doors.\u201d <\/p>\n

They called Sketchley an amazing man who lived an amazing life, saying he\u2019ll be \u201cin all our hearts forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others said he had a passion for teaching and the arts, an educator who made an impact on \u201cso many lives\u201d and managed to remember everyone\u2019s name. Many fondly remembered Sketchley greeting the student body every morning, ringing the bell on the school\u2019s front lawn. <\/p>\n

\"\"Barrie Sketchley TSAA (Toronto School Administrators Association) said Barrie Sketchley’s 40+ career makes him the longest-serving principal in TDSB history and in the province of Ontario. (Supplied) <\/p>\n

A private funeral service for Sketchley has already taken place, however a celebration of life for the school community will be held in November.<\/p>\n

Ghassibe said there will always be a reminder of RHSA\u2019s beloved long-serving principal at the school, with \u201cBarrie\u2019s corner,\u201d a re-creation of his office, set up in the foyer.<\/p>\n

\"\"Barrie Sketchley School library to be renamed<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s current principal added that RHSA\u2019s library will also be renamed The Barrie Sketchley Library on the day of his celebration of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil then, let\u2019s love and laugh and express a passion for life as Barrie always did,\u201d Ghassibe said.<\/p>\n

With files from CTV News Toronto\u2019s Allison Hurst<\/p>\n

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