2 Freshmen and 2 Incumbents Win Seat on Portage School Board

PORTAGE, MI – Voters have selected four Portage Public Schools board members.

Incumbents Terry Novaria and Robert Snyder and newcomers Mary Lou Rover and Mark Stevenson will be sworn in to the Portage School Board in January 2025.

Novaria, Snyder, Rover and Stevenson received the following votes:

• Novaria: 12,995
• Snyder: 12,843
• Rover: 13,409
• Stevenson: 12,663

Five candidates competed for the four open seats in the November 5 elections. David Harris received the fewest votes with 7,819.

Novaria, 68, has served as a Portage school board trustee for the past 10 years. Novaria said she volunteers with Portage Public Schools and has been a parent of PPS students for 22 years, according to a pre-election poll conducted by Vote411.

Rover, 67, retired. Rover was a teacher in Portage and Kalamazoo Public Schools for 12 years before retiring, according to responses to the Vote411 survey. Rover holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University and a teaching certificate in mathematics and physics from Western Michigan University.

Snyder, 60, has been a Portage school board member since 2009 and a Portage Education Foundation board member since 2015. He also served on school community boards and the Kalamazoo Literacy Coalition, according to Vote411. He is a retired healthcare administrator and consultant with a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in hospital administration from the University of Michigan.

Rover and Stevenson will replace trustees Ian Hamilton and Keith Crowell, who did not seek re-election. Their terms expire in December.

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