Modified Admin Interface

Hi,

I am hoping that someone can point us in the correct direction for this request. We want users in specific group(s) to have access to an extremely simplified admin interface. We do not need the total edit permissions screen. All they need to to add/remove user permissions of [All Access], and remove/add group permission of Anonymous user to [view all versions]. They also need access to edit options like title, keywords, description, summary. Lastly they need to be able to edit specific custom fields.

Could something like this be achieved through theming of admin.tpl? or would a customized form/module be a better idea? I was thinking about creating a custom form with all the necessary form fields that our users need to have access to. I have yet to create a module on my own. So can someone point me to the API classes that would help me start this module, or any documentation that might help me start writing my module.

Thanks,
iEARN