VANCOUVER, BC—Enrollment doubled going into the second year of the Vancouver School Board’s Aboriginal Choice school on East Hastings, “The plan was to start small and grow slowly,” says Vonnie Hutchingson, principal, “although we’ve doubled our enrolment.” The majority of the new enrollment is in kindergarten. The VSB called the school-within-a-school an ‘Aboriginal Focus School’ and established it in 2012 as the school year began at Macdonald School, 1950 E Hastings Street.

“It’s a great location, big classrooms and students in them from kindergarten to grade 4,” s...