July 1, 2024

Mandatory Training 2024-2025 School Year

Welcome to the 2024-25 School year. You now have access to complete all of your mandatory training. It is each employee’s responsibility to complete the training by October 31, 2024* for the 2024-2025 school year. These required trainings ensure employees understand their employment rights, safety practices, and mandated reporting responsibilities. The total estimated time to complete these training sessions is approximately 4 hours, but they do not all have to be completed in one sitting or in any specific order.  

All PPS employees are required to complete these trainings, including all limited term staff, interns, student teachers, and practicum students. All PPS employees, with the exception of Portland Association of Teacher members, will be given time during the workday (timing at the discretion of their manager) to complete these trainings.  Note: if you already completed these as part of being hired for summer school, you do not need to complete these again.

Courses will be automatically assigned under “My Current Courses” in Pepper, the District’s Professional Learning Management System. You can access Pepper at pepper.pps.net. See directions below. If you are receiving this notice outside of your work year, please be advised of this requirement once your work year begins. Additionally, you are not required to print your certificate.

*Exceptions:

PPS Athletic Coaches must complete the training sessions by August 7, 2024. If hired after August 12, 2024, coaches will have 1 week to complete the mandatory training. 

PPS Substitutes must complete the training sessions by August 15, 2024 or by the date given to you by the Workforce Development team.

Mandatory Online Trainings:

• (PC1051)  Child Abuse Prevention and Reporting
• (PC1052)  Discrimination, Harassment, Bullying and Retaliation 
• (PC1053)  Emergency Preparedness Training
• (PC1054)  Employee Handbook 
• (PC1055)  Supporting Students and Families Experiencing Homelessness
• (PC1056)  Risk Management and Hazard Communication 
• (PC1057)  Adult Sexual Misconduct: Staff to Student/ Title IX
• (PC1058)  Professional Conduct Training
• (PC1059)  Information Security Awareness training
• (PC1060)  School Suicide Prevention Training
• (PC1061)  Heat Illness Prevention Training
• (PC1062)  Wildfire Smoke Protection Training

Please follow the steps below to begin training:

Step 1: Click on the following link: pepper.pps.net.

Step 2: Enter your PPS username and password and click “Login & Access My Account.” If you need assistance with logging in, contact the IT Service Desk at support@pps.net.

• If this is your first time logging into Pepper, you will be asked to create a profile and review the “Quick Start Guide to Pepper” in your “My Pepper Announcements.”

Step 3: Your mandatory courses are located in the upper right of the screen under “My Current Courses.”

Step 4: Each course will begin on the navigation instructions page. Please review these instructions as they may differ from course to course.  

Step 5: After finishing all course requirements, be sure to check the “I have completed the course” box and then “Submit” in order to receive a certificate of completion.

• Certificates are available under “Tools” on the main menu bar. To download your certificate, click on the certificate icon.

Step 6: To complete your remaining courses, return to the dashboard by clicking on the Pepper logo in the upper left of the screen.

Note: Partially completed courses will remain under the “My Current Courses” section until they are fully completed. The “My Progress” tab will display your courses in progress and the percentage that is completed. Once a course is fully completed, the course will be removed from the “My Current Course” section and a certificate is available under the Tools menu.  

More information about Pepper learning can be found on the PPS website at https://www.pps.net/pepper.