The election may be over for School Board member Carol A.O. Wolf less than a week after it officially began.

The three-term incumbent was among nine of 27 potential School Board candidates disqualified yesterday by the city's registrar. None of the others was an incumbent.

"I knew I was racing the clock," said Wolf, who said she found herself 50 signatures short of the 125 required to run less than four hours before the filing deadline.

She ultimately submitted 140 signatures, but more than 15 were thrown out because the signers were not registered voters.

Wolf said she thinks she may have left the signatures at a student disciplinary meeting and that they were accidentally shredded.

She said last night that she'll take a few days to consider her options.

"I'm going to continue to be a voice and an activist for public-school reform," she said.

How she approaches that beyond the end of her term, which expires at the end of the year, is the question.

"I need time to talk to the people I answer to," she said, referring to her family and to her constituents.

She said several people encouraged her to mount a write-in campaign but she won't decide before the first of next week.

Wolf's disqualification leaves Norma Murdoch-Kitt as the only official candidate in the 3rd District. In the last election, it was Murdoch-Kitt who failed to qualify for the ballot. She staged an unsuccessful write-in campaign.

Murdoch-Kitt said Wolf's departure from the race won't change her campaign strategy. She "still plans to meet as many of her constituents as possible," she said.

The official ballot for the November election now includes 18 candidates. Incumbents Kimberly M. Bridges in the 1st District and Evette L. Wilson in the 9th District are running unopposed, as is Murdoch-Kitt.

Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or zreid@timesdispatch.com.