A suspended Pottsville School District athletic administrator testified during his termination hearing this week that he had no sexual intent when he commented on and placed emojis on social media photos of female student-athletes.
Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, 38, who is suspended without pay as director of athletics and student activities for the district, testified Monday during the third and final day of the hearing, which began in January.
The former University of Iowa football star was hired last May and was suspended four-and-a-half months later after the district charged him with improper conduct, neglect of duty, and violating school laws.
Attorney Mark Fisher of Allentown, who is the hearing officer, concluded the hearing after Johnson-Koulianos testified and after both his attorney, Joseph Nahas, and school district solicitor Sarah Modrick presented closing arguments.
Fisher will prepare a report for the Pottsville School Board and recommend that it either fire or retain Johnson-Koulianos. That recommendation is not binding, though, and the board members are free to vote as they choose.
The district suspended Johnson-Koulianos in October — first with pay and a day later without pay — after school officials charged him with violating 11 district policies and the state school code, and ignoring repeated instruction and warnings from administrators to correct his behavior.
District officials say that he did not perform his job well, that his conduct was improper and that he crossed professional boundaries with children through text messages and by commenting on, reposting and adding emojis to Instagram posts.
Johnson-Koulianos maintained that his placement of fire emojis on Pottsville student photos and comments such as “immaculate vibes” were his way of showing support for the district’s athletic programs and to speak in lingo that today’s students could relate to.
“Never in a million years” did he intend any sexual connotations, he said.
Johnson-Koulianos also admitted that he had been struggling with the financial aspects of his job before his suspension, but blamed the district for failing to train him for work they knew he wasn’t capable of performing.
The district created the position shortly before hiring Johnson-Koulianos, who initially applied to be Pottsville’s head football coach position, but was not chosen for that job.
Johnson-Koulianos said that Pottsville Superintendent Dr. Sarah Yoder had encouraged him to apply for the administrative post, having been impressed by his interview, his story, his energy and enthusiasm, and telling him he would be an asset to the district and its students.
But Johnson-Koulianos said that all of his previous employment was as a football coach. Much of the AD job entailed doing financial work for the athletic department, which he said he was not educated to perform, had no experience with and was therefore failing at.
Work that should have taken five minutes took him an hour, he said, pulling him away from other duties within the athletic department, and prompting him to offer a part-time district administrator $5,000 of his $65,000 salary to teach him how to do it.
“I was drowning,” he said.
During cross examination, district solicitor Sarah Modrick questioned whether Johnson-Koulianos had come to his supervisors to explain how much help he needed, which he said he did not.
Derrell Johnson-Koulianos answers questions during a hearing at the Terrance P. Reiley Community Building in Pottsville, Monday, April 7, 2025. It was the third and final day of the hearing, which began in January. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)
During the first day of testimony in the hearing in January, Yoder testified that Johnson-Koulianos engaged in “grossly inappropriate communications and behavior via social media” with Pottsville students through the use of texts, emojis and suggestive language, and continued to reach out to students after he was suspended.
Johnson-Koulianos was also accused of transporting students in the bed of his pickup truck without administrative permission, appointing a special education student as an intern without the necessary approval, failing to follow protocols for duties like submitting ticket sheets for sports events and managing cash receipts, insubordination, not being honest on his resume that he had been fired from previous employment, and circumventing the chain of command by communicating with school board members about his employment status, disciplinary actions and the investigation into his conduct.
During the second day of the hearing in March, the mothers of two female Pottsville High School students said that they never thought of Johnson-Koulianos’s online communication with their girls as being sexually suggestive or otherwise out-of-line.
Nahas on Monday said that the district’s administrators were not being honest in their case to terminate Johnson-Koulianos. His initial suspension came after administrators had heard rumors about Johnson-Koulianos having a sexual relationship with a female cheerleader.
Soon after being suspended, Johnson-Koulianos reached out to several people connected with the district, including a school board member and a cheerleading adviser, even though administrators told him to refrain from contacting anyone within the district, he acknowledged.
He said that he was angry and was scared after learning that the district was investigating the rumors of an inappropriate relationship, but did not provide him with details. He also heard that the school board was planning to fire him, and that the matter had been referred to Pottsville Police and the state ChildLine for suspected child abuse.
Johnson-Koulianos said that his contact with the school director and cheerleading adviser were an attempt to find out what was going on, since he was in the dark about the allegations.
“Everything was at stake in my life, my reputation, my livelihood, everything,” he said.
Johnson-Koulianos denied any wrongdoing with the student, saying “that never happened.”
During the second day of the hearing in March, the student mentioned in those rumors also denied that Johnson-Koulianos did anything inappropriate with her. Police did not file any criminal charges against Johnson-Koulianos as a result of that investigation, and the school district did not mention a sexual relationship with a student in its list of charges for termination.
Nahas said that both he and the hearing officer asked for the investigatory documents from the district related to that accusation, but that the district never provided them, making it more difficult for the hearing officer to make an informed recommendation.
In his closing argument, Nahas said that it was Yoder whose employment should be terminated since it was she who recommended that Johnson-Koulianos be hired for a position he was not prepared for, and who failed to ensure he received the proper support to succeed.
Modrick used a PowerPoint presentation for her closing argument, reminding the four Pottsville School Board members in attendance that the hearing was not a court or criminal proceeding. The board members do not need to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that they should fire Johnson-Koulianos, only to find a preponderance of evidence to support that action, she said.
Modrick pointed out that when hired, Johnson-Koulianos signed paperwork agreeing to follow a number of district policies that he later violated, and has admitted to having information on his resume that was not accurate.
The Pennsylvania School Code gives school boards the right to remove employees for “incompetency, intemperance, neglect of duty, violation of the school laws (of the state) or other improper conduct,” she said.
She then gave a timeline of the infractions Johnson-Koulianos is charged with committing and encouraged board members to read the hearing transcripts before making a decision.
Before adjourning, Fisher asked Johnson-Koulianos about his social media comments and the emojis he placed on students’ photos. Johnson-Koulianos said that he still did not think they were wrong but would not post them again if he had the chance.
“My perspective has changed,” Johnson-Koulianos said, due to the “backlash” resulting from his social media activity and the “optics” of it.
“I don’t see a problem with it, but I wouldn’t do it again,” he said.
Johnson-Koulianos acknowledged that in a text message prior to his termination hearing, he said he would never return to work for the district as long as Yoder was the superintendent.
Following the hearing on Monday, though, Nahas said that his client said that during an emotional time, and that if he’s retained by the district, he will consider his options.
Johnson-Koulianos said he has applied for numerous jobs since he was suspended by Pottsville but has received no calls back, which he blamed on the investigation into sexual allegations against him. He remains out of work.
Following the hearing, Nahas said that if the school board terminates Johnson-Koulianos, he plans to file a federal lawsuit against the district.
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