A Colorado Springs charter school will kick off its 2021-2022 academic year with a new middle school and a pilot program designed to help gird students against the kind of emotional upheaval brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Enrollment is underway for a new school for grades 6-8 at the Colorado Early Colleges campus in Colorado Springs. It will be the charter school system’s first middle school in southern Colorado, according to head of school Jennifer Daugherty. “We have three middle schools in our organization in northern Colorado, but this will be our first opening of a middle school here,” Daugherty said.