OLPS, Abp. Hannan alumna stays close to her Catholic school roots

Above: Kayla Herrington Siemann was already a classically trained pianist as an eighth grader at Our Lady of Prompt Succor School in Chalmette.

Story and photos by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald

When the Clarion Herald interviewed Kayla Herrington Siemann for a profile that appeared in the October 2000 issue of Kids’ Clarion, she was balancing a schedule that was as packed as any adult’s … and then some.

The then-eighth grader at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Elementary School in Chalmette (OLPS) was already an accomplished classical pianist and a singer who led school Masses and was in the midst of cutting her first garage-band CD of cover tunes.

On top of taking voice lessons, the teen was a member of OLPS’s chorus, drama club, “oldies” singing group and the captain of her school’s Patriettes dance team.

So, catching up with her now, it is no surprise that Kayla, now 25, living in Mandeville and awaiting the birth of her third daughter, is still living each day to its fullest – and she wouldn't have it any other way. 

“(OLPS) feels like a lifetime ago because so much in the world and in our community has happened in 20 years,” said Siemann, director of alumni relations and a member of the advancement, development and communications teams at her alma mater of Archbishop Hannan High, located in Covington since Hurricane Katrina.

Siemann’s mother, Dela Herrington, was an OLPS teacher when her children attended the school, and although the family lived in Violet, they would attend Mass at OLPS Church, where Siemann led the children’s choir as a teen.

“I grew up with those teachers; I grew up with their kids,” Siemann said.  It was always just this really family-friendly atmosphere, and everything was focused around our Catholicism.”

At Archbishop Hannan, which Siemann attended at its original location in Meraux, she was captain of the Hawkettes dance team and continued studying piano through her senior year – instruction provided by her beloved OLPS music teacher, the late Randy Rumbelow. Siemann also found time to sing and play keyboards for a pop rock band called LA 46 – the technical name of St. Bernard Highway – which made the festival, fair and party circuit.

She graduated from Archbishop Hannan in 2005, a few months before Katrina devastated St. Bernard Parish. Poignantly, Siemann only was able to salvage the keys from her childhood piano from the floodwaters.

“My class was the last class to graduate from the Meraux campus,” said Siemann, who went on to earn a degree in theater performance at LSU. 

In 2010, the newly minted college graduate moved to New York City to try her luck at acting and directing.

“New York is tough,” Siemann said. “I took dance classes and I worked in a restaurant, but it wasn’t meant to be. I loved living there, but I missed my family.” 

Like many post-Katrina St. Bernardians, “home” now means St. Tammany Parish. Upon her return, Siemann got involved in community theater at Rivertown in Kenner, Le Petit in New Orleans and Playmakers in Covington. She also sang for four years with the National D-Day Museum‘s famous “Victory Belles” singing trio.

Siemann, who is about to celebrate her fifth wedding anniversary, acted in her last show – “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” – while pregnant with her first child, now a pre-kindergartner at Our Lady of the Lake School in Mandeville.

Siemann said her last three years on Archbishop Hannan’s staff have been like a homecoming, full of old friends, some of whom taught her at OLPS and in high school.

“The spirit of Archbishop Hannan is very much the same as the spirit of the school when it was in Meraux,” she said. “The values that the students are being taught are the same that I learned, and our school motto is the same: ‘Charity leads to perfection.’

“All of our Catholic school missions are about not just learning what you need to get to the next stage of your life,” Siemann added. “It’s about the whole person – your mind, your body and your soul.”