HOLLIS – Hollis and Brookline voters didn’t heed the warnings of co-op administration about the high school possibly losing its accreditation and failed to pass a construction bond – which would expand the overcrowded high school building.

At the third session of the Hollis Brookline Cooperative School District annual meeting Wednesday night, a reconsidered vote to approve a construction bond failed to receive supermajority approval. In all, 1,138 registered voters turned out to make their voices heard on the remaining articles on the warrant, including the controversial reconsideration of a bond for facilities improvements, a proposed tax cap, and an article to reject common core standards.

The $2.4 million bond, pared down from the original $5.5 million proposal earlier in the month, focused on overutilization and space issues at Hollis Brookline High School. Following a secret ballot vote, the bond received a 596-514 majority, but fell considerably short of the two-thirds supermajority needed to pass.

The school has been under threat of being placed on probation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the agency that oversees accreditation, if improvements aren’t made. With Wednesday night’s failure to obtain a supermajority, the school’s status is in jeopardy.

Scaling back the bond

The original $5.5 million bond presented at the first session on March 3, included facilities renovation and an addition, along with $2.3 million to improve existing athletic fields and build a new synthetic turf field. That bond was defeated by an overwhelming margin, and voters at the second session on March 6 approved bringing it back for reconsideration. Officials eliminated the new sports field and scaled back the proposal to make it more palatable.

“Please trust that we have done so with the best interest of the children and not self-interest here,” said Tom Solon, chairman of the Cooperative School Board, as he reviewed the revised bond proposal. “What we have done is taken information from multiple meetings and forums and come up with what appears to be a consensus of all the things that we believe are fundamentally required to keep our high school operating.”

Grant Johnson, senior class president and student representative to the cooperative school board, received enthusiastic applause as he quoted from the NEASC warning letters and presented his opinion on the space issues.

“A pregnant teacher shouldn’t have to travel on a cart to three classrooms,” he said. “I shouldn’t have to listen to teachers’ cellphone conversations in the hallway because they do not have anywhere to go to conduct private business … when things go bust, they will say we chose not to stay accredited.”

Steve Pucci, of Hollis, spoke against approving the bond just to appease an outside organization.

“The threat of probation makes no sense,” he said. “It is a self-assessment process. We have told them we have a space problem many times, but we have a great school. Nothing about accreditation shows how we are doing in terms of student performance. We are talking about spending millions and there is nothing that shows how we are doing. We should focus on performance and priorities.”

Common Core rejected

Petition Article 14 asks that the district reject Common Core state standards and instead implement its own set of standards.

Because the petitioner, Eric Pauer, was unable to attend in person, Hollis School Board member Deb Pucci spoke to the article. Basic objections to Common Core include the loss of control, since they must be adopted word for word, lack of accountability and the amount of data collected would also include private information, such as social security numbers and religious affiliations. It is a living document that can be changed without consulting participants.

Former state legislator Doug Davidson, of Hollis, called Common Core “a race to the bottom,” and said the educational system is in a state of decay.

State Rep. Melanie Levesque, of Brookline, spoke in favor of adopting Common Core as many states have already done so.

The article, which is advisory only, received a majority vote to reject Common Core.

Tax cap

Another petition article by Pauer sought to enact a 2.5 percent tax cap, limiting future budget increases year to year.

Darlene Mann, chairwoman of the HBCSD Budget Committee, spoke in opposition to the tax cap, particularly the fact that it would apply only to the cooperative budget and not to the individual school district or town budgets.

“This does not change the tax value and is not enforced by the (Department of Revenue Administration),” she said. “It shifts the discussion from rigorous review of the budget to yes/no, is it over or under the cap?”

Several residents commented that the tax cap doesn’t alleviate tax problems, with one even calling it “a control freak thing.” Tom Whalen, of Hollis, received one of the most enthusiastic responses of the evening when he spoke against the tax cap, shortly after the defeat of the bond was announced.

“These petitions are political and a waste of time,” he said. “They’re from a group of disrupters to drive a wedge between Hollis and Brookline. We have lost our chance to do what should be done for the kids and we need to think long and hard what we are going to do next year.”

In the end, the assembly voted to table the tax cap article, and no action was taken.

The other financial article reviewed was to establish an expendable trust fund for building and facilities maintenance. The article sought to allocate up to $1 for the fund, just to get it established. Following discussion, the article was amended to allocate up to $20,000 from unreserved funds, and the amended article won by a majority vote.

After more than 13 hours of discussion spread over three nights, the annual meeting begun on March 3 adjourned just before 11 p.m.