As a parent himself, Justin is committed to serving as a voice for parents on the Prince William County School Board. Since 2015, Justin has participated in over 2,500 school functions, classroom visits, sporting events, nighttime activities, fine arts performances, and other activities throughout the Potomac District. Before COVID-19, Justin regularly scheduled “Coffee with Wilk” events at the Panera Bread in Dumfries off 234. During the pandemic, Justin hosted virtual town halls with other elected officials, the Town of Dumfries, and a student town hall with his colleague in Gainesville.  

Justin commenced community office hours during the fall of 2022 in partnership with other community HOAs. Justin is also one of a handful of board members who created a citizen’s budget committee for the Potomac District. Participants on the committee included teachers, parents, and other community partners. Justin is the only board member to host town halls in both of his high schools during the 2021-2022 school year. Justin also served as the chief sponsor of the updated policy promoting division transparency by notifying families of any school-wide events within five days of the scheduled event.

Parent engagement naturally leads to student success. During the last couple of years, the division has seen some dramatic improvements in student academics and accomplishments. In 2021, Prince William County Schools launched a robust strategic plan that included a developed Profile for a Prince William County Graduate. The PWCS Vision 2025 includes four commitments to bettering the future of all Prince William County students. Since launching the strategic plan, Prince William County Schools has dramatically improved their overall state ranking on NICHE moving from 26 to 17th best division in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Some notable accomplishments over the past couple of years include adopting an improved fixed weighting for many classes, expanding the number of students accepted into Thomas Jefferson, and opening more seats within our own Governor School. The school board remains committed to student success by adding instructional coaches at all levels, increasing the number of school counselors, and investing additional funds in student activities like robotics. The increased number of scholarship dollars at all high schools is a direct result of the new investments in all our schools as well as the growth of the robotics programs and career tech education.

During COVID-19, Justin supported offering the hybrid option from the onset, and later, escalating the timeline to bringing students back during the phased-in hybrid approach (7/2020 and 10/2020 votes). Despite his efforts, these proposals failed, resulting in a delay in in-person learning. The pandemic has resulted in learning loss across the country, but the school board remains committed to supporting students to recover to previous levels before the pandemic. Some of these efforts include post-pandemic tutoring and an expanded summer school program. The division has completed the 1:1 student/device initiative and has sought ways to improve WIFI access to all Prince William County families. Prince William County Schools also provides students with increased SAT prep and dual enrollment options and addresses low-performance schools by changing leadership and evaluation practices.