Background
The Guadalupe Union School District (GUSD) serves a rural, K–8 student population on California’s Central Coast. With approximately 1,300 students and a wide range of academic and support needs, the district is always exploring new ways to provide high-quality instructional and support services.
Challenge
Like many school systems, GUSD faced staffing challenges in recruiting and managing qualified professionals—especially in areas such as special education, therapy and school support roles. These challenges often stem from limited local candidate pools. They were also juggling working with 7 different vendors leading to high administrative burdens and confusing compliance requirements.
Solution: Aya Education MSP
To overcome these obstacles, GUSD partnered with Aya Education, a workforce solutions provider specializing in school-based staffing. Through an Aya Education Managed Service Provider (MSP) program, GUSD received:
- Technology-enabled hiring support: LotusOne, a digital workforce platform that accelerates recruitment, manages candidate pipelines and improves visibility across the hiring lifecycle.
- Comprehensive staffing services: Including credentialing, contracting, candidate evaluation, performance monitoring, billing and payroll support—allowing district administrators to spend more time on student learning rather than administrative processes and spreadsheets.
- Streamlined vendor communication: The district no longer needed to work with multiple vendors and has a dedicated Aya account manager as their one point of contact.
Results
In the first year and half of the MSP partnership, Aya has staffed 66 positions for the district in 12 specialties with an on-time start rate of 96%. GUSD’s greatest need has been consistent paraprofessional support, which Aya has delivered, as well as speech language pathologists and nurses (RN, LPN). GUSD’s experience with Aya Education highlights the benefits of an MSP education staffing solution:
“Since I’ve switched to an MSP it has really streamlined the process of recruiting staff. Working with Aya Education is a true partnership. They’re here to help ensure that I can meet the needs of my students.”
— Nathan Moreno, Director of Special Education, Guadalupe Union School District
Specialties staffed
| Speech Language Pathologist | Special Education Teacher Mod/Severe |
| Occupational Therapist | Certified School Nurse |
| Special Education Teacher Mild/Mod | Board Certified Behavior Analyst |
| Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant | Psychologist |
| Speech Language Pathologist Assistant | RN |
| LPN/LVN | Paraprofessional |
An education staffing MSP
The partnership between GUSD and Aya Education shows how a technology-forward staffing partner can support rural districts in overcoming recruitment and retention challenges. By simplifying hiring, expanding talent access and managing critical administrative responsibilities, the collaboration helps the district stay focused on student success and instructional priorities. Today, GUSD continues its partnership with Aya, leveraging its MSP to deliver support to its students. This trusted relationship helps GUSD to respond quickly to evolving student needs, guided by shared values and proven results.