RSU 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle has been named Maine's 2025 Superintendent of the Year, recognizing his outstanding efforts to expand educational opportunities and promote a positive school climate for the students and families of seven Maine towns.
For more than a decade, Tuttle has led RSU 12, a largely rural district serving students from Alna, Chelsea, Palermo, Somerville, Westport Island, Whitefield, and Windsor. Under Tuttle’s watch, RSU 12 established a universal pre-K program that has helped to close achievement gaps and increase youth literacy rates. Tuttle has also instituted several cost-saving initiatives, including developing a Behavior, Autism and Life Skills program, saving the district more than $500,000.
"Through innovation and collaboration, Howie has repeatedly found ways to balance the financial needs of taxpayers while expanding educational opportunities for every student in RSU 12," said Eileen King, the executive director of the Maine School Superintendents Association, which presents the annual award. "He exemplifies the best qualities of Maine's educational leaders: dedicated, caring, and focused on student success."
In 2018, RSU 12 launched Maine's first anti-bullying committee, which continues to meet regularly. This year, the district partnered with the Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed and Maine State YMCA Camp on a series of professional development workshops to update its lessons and curriculum, implementing more place-based knowledge around the watershed. RSU 12 has recently opened a daycare to serve its teachers’ children – a step that has helped the district recruit and retain its educators.
"I am pleased to have served on the RSU 12 School Board with Superintendent Howard Tuttle for seven years,” said RSU 12 Board Member Russell Gates. “Howard diligently fulfills his responsibilities and obligations with care and attention to detail. His sense of right and wrong is matched by a strong sense of honesty and integrity in overseeing the success of all students in our district's five schools."
“Howard’s leadership, professionalism and dedication to education fosters growth and innovation in the development and learning for RSU 12’s staff and students,” said former RSU 12 Board Member Mary Coventry. “Howard is collaborative, seeks best practices and is steadfast in the positive cultural environment he sets for RSU 12."
Tuttle is the Vice President of the Midcoast Superintendents Association, and is a longstanding member of MSSA's Funding Committee.
He received the honor on October 23rd at the Maine School Superintendents Association Annual Meeting.