In hopes of settling a voting-rights lawsuit, the Saugus elementary school board has called a special meeting for July 7 to consider asking the county to change its elections from odd years to even years, when more people typically vote.

The move would cancel the school board election that’s otherwise scheduled for Nov. 3, 2015, and move it to November 2016 when it would appear on the same ballot as the presidential election.

Likewise, the 2017 election would be moved to 2018, when California voters select the next governor.

The purpose of the shift is “to increase and enhance voter participation” as outlined in a proposed settlement of a lawsuit brought against the district in April by Jim Soliz, who is also suing the city of Santa Clarita and College of the Canyons.

In the Saugus lawsuit, Soliz, a community activist, seeks to require the school district to “implement district-based elections or other alternative relief tailored to remedy” the district’s alleged violation of the California Voting Rights Act.

Soliz’s lawsuit alleges that the “imposition of SUSD’s at-large method of election has resulted in vote dilution for the Latino residents and has denied them effective political participation in elections to the SUSD Board of Trustees.”

No California Voting Rights Act lawsuit has ever been successfully defended.

Rather than change the makeup of the school board, however, the immediate upshot would be a one-year extension for each of the sitting board members, who were elected at-large. Those with four-year terms expiring in November 2015 would serve until November 2016, while terms expiring in November 2017 would be extended to November 2018.

Persons elected in 2016 and 2018 would serve four-year terms.

Ultimately the decision to move the election is up to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. While some consolidations have been approved lately, the Registrar-Recorder has generally opposed them for reasons relating to staffing and the size of the ballot.