Battle Ground superintendent to retire; board of directors appoints successor

Superintendent Denny Waters is relocating outside of Southwest Washington to live closer to family

After 18 years in Battle Ground Public Schools, Superintendent Denny Waters is set to retire at the end of the 2024-25 school year. He is relocating outside of Southwest Washington to live closer to family. 

The Battle Ground board of directors approved Waters’ retirement at its Feb. 10 meeting. On Feb. 24, the board voted to appoint Shelly Whitten to be the next superintendent of the district. Whitten, the district’s current deputy superintendent, will begin her new role on July 1, 2025.

About Denny Waters

Waters has nearly 40 years of experience in education. In Battle Ground, he served as an assistant principal and executive director of special services before becoming the district’s deputy superintendent in 2017. In that role, he earned a 2020 Robert J. Handy Most Effective Administrator award from the Washington Association of School Administrators. 

Since becoming superintendent in 2021, Waters has demonstrated a commitment to transparency, stakeholder engagement and fiscal responsibility. With input from staff, families and the community, he oversaw the creation of a new strategic plan focused on safe and caring environments, high-quality instruction and collaboration that cultivates trust. He formed student and citizen advisory committees to capture student input and increase communication with parents and community members on important issues such as facility planning. In 2024, local voters approved the district’s first-ever capital levy to make building repairs and create and update spaces for construction trades, culinary and health sciences classes. That same year, the district also received a clean financial audit by the Washington state auditor’s office. 

Said Waters, “Working in BGPS and serving as superintendent has been the greatest honor of my professional career. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with students, parents, guardians, staff and community members to move the district forward. I am confident that the foundation we have built will continue to support the district.”

About Shelly Whitten

A Battle Ground alum, Whitten also has more than three decades of experience as an educator. Her tenure in the district includes working as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, director of instructional leadership, director of human resources and assistant superintendent of human resources. She became the deputy superintendent in 2020 and has worked closely with Waters to lead the district’s pandemic recovery efforts, oversee the teaching and learning and human resources departments, develop the strategic plan, establish committees that tap into the perspectives of different stakeholders and guide decisionmaking about the district’s facilities. The deputy superintendent role helps to provide continuity of leadership and act as the superintendent when the superintendent is not available.

Whitten has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, master’s degree in education administration and superintendent certification from Washington State University.

Information provided by the Battle Ground School District.