Even in retirement, Rosie Ann Coleman has a sense of urgency and a heart for helping kids who come from impoverished homes.
And that heart is beating strong now, after pneumonia, congestive heart failure, quadruple bypass surgery and a groundbreaking technique that was critical to her recovery late last year and into this year.
"My heart is back to normal," Coleman said in a recent interview scheduled among her walks, weightlifting, tutoring young pupils, church work and telling her stories.
The 40-year educator, who topped off her career as the executive director of elementary education in the North Little Rock School District, is the teller of two kinds of stories. One is about her journey to heart health -- including the loss of more than 225 pounds over four years -- and the other is about educating children like those she encountered as a teacher, principal and administrator.
She is doing the latter through her recently published 25-page paperback book, "Give Me A Chance," published by Christian Faith Publishing, which tells the story of brothers Brian, a fourth-grader, and Lance, a kindergartner, at New Town Elementary.
It's the first day of the new school year. Brian and Lance are wrinkled and dirty and wearing too-tight shoes but they are on campus -- even as their mother is unaware of the significance of the day and is home asleep on the couch.
One of the first people Brian runs into is his disdainful, former third-grade teacher, who promptly tells his new teacher that she will have her hands full with Brian. That teacher, Mrs. Davis, however, is undaunted and quickly shows herself to to be a loving, caring teacher who helps Brian to flourish despite his challenges.
"I want people to know that kids of poverty deserve a chance of changing the trajectory of their lives," Coleman said about the motivation for the book, some of it written and edited as she recovered from her surgery.
"Everybody knows that if you have one person in your corner -- if you have a cheerleader in your life -- rich or poor, you are going to be successful. But a lot of poverty kids don't have that," she said.
The events in the book mirror what Coleman saw in her years working first in the Augusta School District and then at North Little Rock's Rose City, Lynch Drive, and Central elementaries and at Meadow Park Elementary where she was principal for 13 years before becoming a central office administrator.
Part of Coleman's message in the book is to adults who don't think it is important to meet the basic needs of poor children and children in minority groups so that they are in a position to learn. Those weren't faculty members who Coleman tolerated.
"I made no bones about it," she said. "I was not one of the most popular people but I didn't go to work to be popular but to change kids' lives. I got up every morning with what I called 'kids on the brain,'" she said and added, "I told parents that when their children were at my school their last name was Coleman."
Coleman herself grew up in Little Rock, number six of 10 children to Pearl and J.C. Coleman. She attended Rightsell and Gibbs elementaries, Dunbar Junior High and graduated from Hall High in 1975. She attended Ouachita Baptist University on an English scholarship for two years until her father became ill and she returned to Little Rock to attain her bachelor's degree in education at Philander Smith College. Her first 16 years of work were with special education students.
Ken Kirspel, a retired superintendent of the North Little Rock School District, said last week that Coleman was recommended to him by a committee for the director of elementary education job.
"She did a great job at Meadow Park. Her kids could achieve," Kirspel recalled. "She was kind of hesitant to leave her school and I talked to her at one time and said she needed to move to help other schools out."
Darrell Montgomery was a longtime member of the School Board and aware of Coleman's advocacy for under-served children from low-income households.
"Ms. Coleman was known for her classroom observations to make sure that teachers were deliberate and engaging during classroom instruction," Montgomery remembered. "She believes that education was the way out of poverty and that elementary classroom instruction could either guide kids to a better future or lose them in a cycle of poverty."
"Give Me a Chance!" is available through the online sellers Barnes and Noble, iTunes and Amazon. Coleman can be reached at colemanr0316@gmail.com.