A big change is coming to the Accokeek Academy.

Students, parents, community stakeholders and school leaders filled the school’s gymnasium Monday for an announcement many have been waiting years to hear — the official groundbreaking of a new building to replace the current, roughly 50-year-old elementary school building.

Accokeek Academy is a pre-K to eighth grade Prince George’s county school with roughly 1,200 students that was established in 2010 through the combination of neighboring schools Eugene Burroughs Middle School and Henry G. Ferguson Elementary School.

The new facility, which will be built between the existing two buildings, is set to open by August 2013 and a fully renovated middle school building is set to open by August 2014. The total project will cost more than $26 million — almost $19 million from the county and more than $7 million from the state. When the elementary school building is complete the middle school students will occupy it until renovations to the existing middle school are complete. By August 2014, both schools will be complete and middle school and elementary school students will all be moved into their respective buildings.