New e-mails have surfaced that appear to further implicate new Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho in a romantic relationship with a former Miami Herald reporter -- only days before the School Board is expected to vote on Carvalho's $275,000 contract.

Carvalho, a longtime school district administrator, has repeatedly denied any romance with former Herald education reporter Tania deLuzuriaga, who covered the Miami-Dade schools from October 2006 to September 2007. He has described their relationship as friendly but professional.

But new e-mails sent anonymously to The Herald suggest a more intimate relationship. In one purported message on July 18, 2007 -- which the school district said it could not authenticate -- Carvalho appears to tell deLuzuriaga: ''I love and miss you too,'' in response to a message from her.

A message that appears to be sent from Carvalho's BlackBerry on Sept. 20, 2007, says: ''Good morning love.'' The message was dated six days after deLuzuriaga resigned from The Herald to take a job at the Boston Globe.

Carvalho, 44, issued a statement Monday calling the latest e-mails a distraction and a ''personal attack.'' He did not specifically address whether the messages were authentic.

''The dredging up of old, alleged e-mails, regardless of their legitimacy appears to be a personal attack with no relevance to my ability to lead this district towards financial stability,'' Carvalho said.

The new e-mails could erode Carvalho's support among school board members, who voted 5-3 to appoint the veteran administrator to succeed Rudy Crew as schools chief. The board is scheduled to consider ratifying Carvalho's proposed three-year contract at a meeting Friday.

Last month, another batch of purported e-mails from deLuzuriaga to Carvalho was sent anonymously to reporters and school board members, including some with sexual banter. Carvalho then met privately with several school board members and assured them there had been no affair.

When reached by The Herald on Monday, seven of the nine board members said the e-mails could be a factor in deciding on Carvalho's contract.

''The question here is how he reacted. That's an issue of character. That's the issue that a lot of us are weighing,'' said board Chairman Agustín Barrera, who supported naming Carvalho to the district's top job. ``If he did something wrong, he should have owned up to it.''

Board member Martin Karp, who also voted for Carvalho last month, said he would have to ''really think about'' the purported e-mails.

''I have to look at the total picture,'' he said. ``I always take into account somebody's professional experience and their integrity. Both are important pieces of the puzzle.''

On Monday, a school district spokesman said the district could only retrieve e-mails that Carvalho had saved, and could find none from Carvalho's private account, though he routinely used that account with his district-issued BlackBerry. The Herald asked for all of Carvalho's e-mail traffic with deLuzuriaga from 2007 in a public-records request sent three weeks ago.

Nearly all of the questionable e-mails between Carvalho and the reporter were sent through Carvalho's private account. The Herald could not authenticate the messages from deLuzuriaga because she too sometimes used a private account, and the newspaper said it does not save old e-mail messages.

However, the newest e-mails, like those circulated last month, contain details about deLuzuriaga's life that give them credibility.

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