Classes will be cancelled at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Wednesday due to the death of Joy Flanders, a longtime teacher at the high school who died over the weekend after a lengthy illness.

A service for Ms. Flanders will be held at the Abel’s Hill Cemetery in Chilmark followed by a reception at the Chilmark Community Center. Ms. Flanders had taught special education at the high school for 10 years and had been a teacher in the Vineyard public school system for 27 years.

“This is a terrible loss for our educational family, it really is,” said Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss yesterday.