Mineola ISD honored the 30-year career of David Sauer with a reception last Wednesday.

More than a few hugs and tears were shared.

Sauer ended his contribution to public education serving five years as the assistant superintendent at MISD. He spent 22 years in all with the district.

Superintendent Cody Mize said that when the assistant position was created, Sauer was the right man for the job, and he was glad that Sauer accepted.

You can tell it’s the right person when you look at their resume and everything they touch has been better, Mize said.

Any success the district has had is a direct correlation with Sauer, he added.

The greatest leaders are humble, Mize continued. Sauer would make any organization better.

One of his most recent successes has been shepherding the district though the new Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) state program, which has awarded $500,000 to Mineola teachers.

Mize said the program would not have happened without Sauer’s work, and others around the state have looked to him to learn how to administer the program.

Mize said another measure of the respect Sauer has garnered is the number of his former students who offered their congratulations when the retirement was announced.

Sauer will continue to assist the district with the TIA program in retirement.

To show his readiness to step aside, Sauer handed out his new “business” cards that give no name or contact information.

“Ask someone else,” it says, as well as “not my problem.”

He said he had only to retrieve the cup off his desk and head out the door.

“It’s hard to leave family,” he said of MISD. ”This district is a pretty special place.”

Sauer was a late comer to the education field, working in Dallas after graduating from Irving Nimitz High School in 1981.

But after being laid off from property management job, he followed in wife Jenny’s foot steps, and went back to school to get teaching credentials. He added a masters in education from UT-Tyler to his bachelors from UT-Arlington.

He spent the first seven years teaching high school in Canton, followed by a year in Van for his first administrative position as an assistant middle school principal.

But the plan was always to work in Mineola where he and Jenny resided, coming to the area after his parents retired here and gifted land in the area to he and his siblings.

The late Mary Lookadoo, who was the superintendent, came calling and brought him on board as assistant principal at the middle school, where he served five years before venturing into elementary school as principal for another five years.

Then he became the high school principal and did that for seven years until moving to assistant superintendent. He was named principal of the year for Region Seven in 2016.

He has served the community in numerous ways, including deacon of the New Hope Baptist Church and has been a member of the Mineola Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs, serving on the boards of both.