Delivering Talent at Scale for Lompoc Unified School District

Highlights

• Lompoc Unified School District partnered with Aya Education to address staffing shortages and expand access to qualified school-based professionals.
• Aya Education streamlined hiring and workforce planning through its LotusOne technology, managed services and a shared paraprofessional substitute pool.
• The partnership delivered results: 101 positions filled across 14 specialties in 18 months with a 95% on-time start rate.

Background

Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD) serves approximately 9,000+ students across multiple sites in Lompoc, California, with a mission to ensure all students graduate prepared for college and career success. 

Challenge

Like many school districts nationwide, LUSD faced persistent staffing shortages. These gaps impacted instructional continuity and IEP services for students, particularly in areas such as special education, counseling and classroom support. 

Partnership with Aya Education

To address these challenges, LUSD partnered with Aya Education through a Managed Services Provider (MSP) model to recruit in-person talent. The expertise of Aya’s account managers, combined with its digital platform, helped the district broaden its recruitment reach, streamline talent delivery and quickly fill LUSD’s staffing gaps. 

Solutions implemented

• Expanded Talent Access: Aya Education widened the pool of qualified candidates for LUSD, helping fill a range of roles from classroom teachers to occupational therapists and speech language pathologists.  
• Streamlined Hiring and Reduced Administrative Burden: Through Aya’s LotusOne workforce management platform, the district experienced a more efficient hiring process, from interview scheduling to compliance documentation. 
• Proactive Planning with Managed Services Program (MSP): Aya’s MSP provided LUSD with a structured, ongoing staffing partnership that enabled continuous candidate flow and structured workforce planning rather than filling roles reactively.  
• Paraprofessional Substitute Services: Through Aya, LUSD partnered with a neighboring school district to build a shared paraprofessional substitute pool that quickly fills last minute call outs utilizing Aya’s mobile-based Shifts app.

Impact

The partnership with Aya Education has been transformative in helping LUSD bring in qualified staff more effectively, expanding recruitment reach and allowing school administrators to focus more on student outcomes rather than staffing logistics. Eighteen months into the MSP partnership, Aya has filled 101 vacancies in 14 different specialties with an on-time start rate of 95%. Aya’s in-person educators have enjoyed working at LUSD with many returning for another school year. 

“Our Aya Education MSP brings in the most qualified staff for our students. It opens up the span of recruitment and that has been amazing.” 

— Jamie Johnson, Director of Special Education, Lompoc Unified School District

 

Specialties staffed

 

Why it worked

With Aya’s strong support and the right technology in place, LUSD improved both recruitment efficiency and educational continuity for students. By moving to an MSP model and tapping into a broader talent pool, the district strengthened its ability to meet staffing demands and better support student needs.