CI Matriarch leaves her throne

Ms. Imelda Blanc taught at Channel Islands for 40 years. About 15 staff members here at CI are her former students. It makes her proud to see them back to their home school.

Those who knew her knew that she loved her job; it was her passion. She wasn’t planning on leaving anytime soon, but her mother needed care, so Ms. Blanc decided to retire during the summer to give her mother the attention she needed.

Ms. Blanc loves CI. She spent the last 40 years making a difference here.

“I see my students as my own children,” she said. “By leaving, it felt like walking away from them; that’s why I never left,” she said.

She describes her relationship with the students as excellent.

“I have an awful lot of love for my students. I tried building a relationship with them to let them know I was there for them.”

Blanc enjoyed seeing her students succeed and she liked seeing former students come back and give to the school.

She even inspired Mr. Adrian Garcia’s wife, Elizabeth, a former student of Channel Islands, to follow in her footsteps and become a Spanish teacher.

“Mrs. Blanc is one of a kind. She was more than a teacher, she was a mentor,” said Leslie Madrigal, a senior who had Mrs. Blanc for Spanish NS3 and 4AP and became very close to her in those two years.

Since Madrigal had her for both sophomore and junior year “my relationship with her grew stronger. We even had conversations outside the classroom, and she’s definitely a teacher I will never forget. When I  heard she had retired, I was heartbroken. I didn’t know what I was going to do without my favorite teacher.”

Mrs. Blanc’s only regret in retiring suddenly is “I wish that I had a little more time with the people that have been in my life and made my life meaningful.”

A couple of words she wanted to say to everyone are “ I want to thank and fully appreciate the students and staff and I leave them my love.”