I still have no idea why Tim O'Shea took a job in the foothills of Appalachia. No earthly idea.
My guess is that he figured he could parlay a short and successful stint in Athens into a bigger and better job in the Northeast. His wife reluctantly agreed to suffer in horrible Athens for her husband's career. That's total speculation, as is this...
When he failed to measurably improve over Larry Hunter (who was basically fired for being mediocre), he had to make a change for both his career ("didn't have great job security," per the article) and his marriage.