Is 1.5M NaOH a strong enough base to deprotonate benzyl alcohol?
Only a very small fraction of the benzyl alcohol ($\mathrm{p}K_\mathrm{a} = 15.4$) would be removed by sodium hydroxide. Acetic acid is about 10 orders of magnitude more acidic than benzyl alcohol with a $\mathrm{p}K_\mathrm{a}$ of $4.8$, so it is completely deprotinated to form sodium acetate and water.  

For the purposes of your experiment you can assume that there is effectively no reaction between benzyl alcohol and sodium hydroxide.