The race to choose Duval County’s next School Board could be one of the most crowded and expensive in Jacksonville history.

Four of the board’s seven seats will be on the ballot this year and at least one incumbent — former Mayor Tommy Hazouri — has said he won’t seek re-election. Powerhouse attorney W.C. Gentry is running again and has already drawn opponents. To date, seven candidates have announced their intent to pursue the two seats. And while two incumbents, Betty Burney and Martha Barrett, have yet to draw an opponent, there are rumblings that more candidates could jump into the fray.

The burgeoning field has drawn the interest of prominent members of Jacksonville’s business community, many of whom were credited with delivering pivotal endorsements that boosted Alvin Brown’s fledgling mayoral campaign last year. With control of the School Board hanging in the balance, key members of the Jacksonville Civic Council, a nonpartisan group of local executives, have launched an effort to identify reform-minded candidates and pledged to raise tens of thousands of dollars to back them.

For decades, Duval County’s public schools have battled a negative image, some of it justified and some not. The district is home to some of the best schools in the country, including two high schools ranked among the top 20 in the country by The Washington Post in 2011. But it also has countless others that struggle, including five that received “F” grades and 18 that received “D” grades in the state’s most recent FCAT rankings.