LYNN – It has been a slow month for the Lynn Public School’s administration team, despite a host of financial and personnel issues on the docket, and school officials are forced to await word from the state on Chapter 70 local aid before they can continue moving forward.Plagued by light agendas, the School Committee ushered in school vacation week with a 15-minute meeting Feb. 14, a record time the committee might break at its next get-together Feb. 28.The department is not without its issues, but without a working knowledge of the state’s Chapter 70 funding, it is difficult to gauge the impact of decisions on the fiscal 2009 budget.Facing the prospect of cutting jobs and programs at every level in 2009, Superintendent Nicholas Kostan was cautiously optimistic that Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposed budget, released in January, would provide the department with some relief.Now that House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi’s proposed spending plan, released last week, has all but echoed the governor’s Chapter 70 allocations, Kostan is hoping the self-titled “education governor” will remain true to his word.”The big issue obviously coming up is going to be the budget, we just don’t have the exact numbers in yet, so it is hard to really know what we are looking at until that happens,” he said Friday. “House Speaker DiMasi’s version of the budget is actually very close to the governor’s budget, so hopefully that is a good sign for us.”Patrick proposed a total increase of $368 million in Chapter 70 local aid in January, which would mean a $117.6 million payout to the Lynn Public Schools, a $6 million increase over last year. DiMasi’s proposal differs from the governors in some areas, but vows to keep the “local aid and Chapter 70 promise” and “maintain local services.”Even with the full increase, Kostan has warned that cuts are still imminent at every level of the department.”It is not going to eliminate cuts, there are still going to have to be cuts, but hopefully they will not be as severe as we originally thought,” he said. “We are hoping for the best, but we understand that cuts will still have to be made at every level, including administration.”Along with staff cuts, the department is also faced with he task of hiring principals at several of the city’s schools. Due to retirements and staff relocation, Kostan is already looking at openings at the Breed, Sisson and Drewicz schools, and anticipates additional retirements of both principals and administrators as the school year draws to a close.This budget season will mark the first without longtime business administrator Stephen Upton, who announced his retirement last summer, but has remained with the department in a part-time role while the department searched for a successor.New Business Administrator Kevin McHugh, hired in December, officially started at his new post Thursday, getting acquainted with the staff and working with Upton to ease his transition to the department.McHugh has experience as business administrator in Wilmington and Peabody, and Kostan says he is confident the new hire will be an asset as the department works to balance the budget.”Kevin actually started this week, he has been working with Steve Upton and acquainting himself with all of the issues,” he said. “He is a very bright guy with experience at this position. He knows a lot about the system.”The School Committee will meet Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Lynn Vocational Technical Institute’s Tiger’s Den Cafeteria.