Updated Mandatory Contracting Course for 2021-22

All District personnel who manage or work with contracts must take the Contracting at PPS: Requirements and Best Practices 2021-22 (PCP1016) course in Pepper PD. The course allows you to read and respond to quiz questions at your own pace; we anticipate that it may take 45 minutes. 

Effective July 1, 2021, the 2021-22 course must be completed before you submit a contract for the 2021-22 school year.  Purchasing & Contracting will not process any contract unless the PPS contract manager, school/department contact person, and budget holder have taken and passed the 2021-22 course.  If you submit a contract, but have not taken the training, you will receive an email reminder to do so.  The contract will be returned unprocessed if the training has not been completed within one week of submission.

To access the course:

1. Log in to Pepper PD (pepper.pps.net)
2. Click on the "Course Library" located on the top menu
3. Click on the "Subject" Filter
4. Scroll and Select "Business Operations" from the choices
5. Click the course title and then "Access Course"

NEW: Mandatory Trainings for Personal Services Contractors

Beginning July 1, 2021, in response to Board policy and audit recommendations, all personal services contractors and their agents and employees who will have unsupervised contact with students must take certain PPS training courses before beginning work with our students.  These trainings are designed to ensure student, staff, and contractor safety and well-being. 

The training courses are available for viewing on the Purchasing & Contracting website here. 

More information about the training requirements can be found here:  Mandatory Contractor Trainings: Guide for PPS Contract Managers

New Contract Management System - Cobblestone

Purchasing & Contracting has implemented new Contract Management System software, Cobblestone. We have trained some of you on its use and provided you access, and we will train others over the coming months.  In the meantime, every contract manager and contact person (as identified in the Contract Approval Form you submit with your contracts) can expect to receive the following system email notifications:

• An expiration warning email will typically be sent 90 days before a contract's expiration. 
• An expiration notice email will also be sent on the day of the contract expiration.
• On the first of each month, you will receive two separate Excel reports by email:
  
  • A report of all of your active contracts
  • A report of all of your contracts expiring within 90 days

These emails are all generated in Cobblestone so will come from Cobblestone or Contract Insights rather than from Purchasing & Contracting directly. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about these notifications. We hope they are helpful.