‘I wanted them to be excited for school’; Bus driver brightens up school buses with art

By Amanda Becker

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    PEWAUKEE, Wisconsin (WDJT) — A Pewaukee school bus driver is turning schools buses into ghoul buses for Halloween!

Felicia Goines is the artist, and she also drives a bus for GO Riteway Transportation.

“Everybody is so stressed, and so just something silly that they get to see on a window and having a bus drive by,” said Goines.

Going back to school this year was tough for students all over, but Goines is making sure these students start their days off right.

Ghosts and monsters, pumpkins and princesses- a different colorful drawing on every window.

Her art caught the attention a lot of little eyes in Pewaukee.

“I was like ‘is that even our bus,'” said Mya, a second grade student at Pewaukee Lake Elementary School.

“I’ve never painted windows before, and I always wanted to be an artist but I never followed that dream unfortunately,” said Goines.

Goines lost her marketing job last year and that led her to this new dream job- a bus driver for the Pewaukee School District.

“This was the absolute best job I could ever have, being able to make the kids happy,” said Goines. “Working with the kids it just makes me happier in what I do, and I feel more appreciated.”

And she’s good at making kids happy. As a mom herself, Goines knows how to make her students feel special. In fact that’s exactly how Mackenzie, another second grader on Goines’ bus described it.

“It just feels special,” said Mackenzie.

Goines started off by painting monsters and a couple of Halloween creatures on her own bus windows.

“I wanted them to be excited for school, so I thought about what my kids would enjoy,” said Goines. “So I just did it as if all of these other kids are my kids.”

After seeing her designs and the student’s reactions, other drivers started asking her to paint their windows too.

“I started seeing all the kids, or hearing them [say] as they walked by ‘I want to be on the monster bus, I want a painted bus and it just kind of spiraled from there” said Goines.

She’s now painted more than a dozen buses and counting. She’s received requests from teachers like Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story.

Pewaukee School District’s Superintendent, Mike Cady, says he’s proud to have Goines on their staff.

“We always talk about that whatever your role is in school you can have a positive impact, and she’s a perfect example of how someone took their role, took their talents, passion and creativity and made a positive impact,” said Cady.

The colorful windows could be sticking around throughout the school year, Cady says he would love for her to do other holiday themed art. Goines says she would love to do a turkey trot theme for Thanksgiving.

“Every time there’s a new bus or something new that I do they, [the students], cheer and they scream and they say ‘oh we have the coolest bus ‘ and the kids they walk by and they’re judging the buses who is on the coolest they’re like ‘oh I’m on this bus ‘ or ‘I’m on the monster bus’.

Cady says Goines art has more of an impact than she knows.

“I think doing things like Felicia did- something to look forward to each day, something that’s novel and different, more colorful and exciting, it’s really important.” said Cady. “Because if kids come to school happy and in the right mindset there going to learn more and have a better day.”

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