It's probably appropriate that Rita Rakestraw will officially "kick off" her campaign tonight for the school board at a martial arts academy.

Rakestraw's kickoff event will be at 7 p.m. at Black Belt USA, 300 Black Belt World Drive in Knightdale. She's been campaigning since March but tonight's event coincides with the official start of the candidate filing period on Monday.

Starting at 8:30 a.m. Monday and running through noon on July 17, candidates can officially file with the Wake County Board of Elections for the four school board seats on this year's ballot.

The Wake Schools Community Alliance isn't wasting any time making an endorsement in the District 1 school board race.

The WSCA sent out a press release Tuesday evening announcing the endorsement of former Wake Forest Town Commissioner Chris Malone for the seat being vacated by Lori Millberg. Malone only announced his candidacy on Friday although rumors about his interest in the seat have been floating around the community for months.

This is the second time the WSCA has issued an endorsement within days of a candidate coming forward. Just two days after Deborah Prickett announced her candidacy in District 7, the group endorsed her.

Former Wake Forest Town Commissioner Chris Malone announced today that he's running for the District 1 school board seat being vacated by Lori Millberg.

It's a pretty crowded field. Rita Rakestraw and Otis Tyrone Lindsey have both filed paperwork to create campaign committees.

Here's the press release:

We've got another player in the race for the school board.

Rita Rakestraw said she filed paperwork today to form a campaign committee for the District 1 board seat being vacated by Lori MIllberg. Rakestraw is making the rounds at today's school board committee of the whole meeting.

Some of you folks may know Rakestraw as chairwoman of Citizens Against Residential Encroachment (CARE), a community group that sued Knightdale after it rezoned land to allow Wal-Mart to build in town.

Two early starters have indicated they plan to run for school board this year.

Both men filed paperwork with the Wake County Board of Elections to form candidate committees. They'll have to submit paperwork when the official candidate filing period begins July 3.

Otis Tyrone Lindsey has indicated he'll run for the District 1 seat being vacated by Lori Millberg. Ray E. Martin has filed paperwork for the District 9 seat being vacated by Eleanor Goettee.