Cherry Hill is approaching artificial intelligence from two very different directions at once, and both moves are happening within weeks of each other. On the education side, Cherry Hill Public Schools, one of New Jersey’s largest districts, is drafting a formal framework governing how students are permitted to interact with AI platforms in the classroom, an effort that comes on the heels of a stricter bell to bell cell phone ban already scheduled to take effect this September. On the municipal side, the Cherry Hill Township Council voted unanimously in late July to ban the development of large scale AI data centers within township borders, citing strain on the local power grid and water supply. Together, the two moves capture just how differently the same technology is being treated depending on whether it shows up as a tool in a classroom or as a warehouse full of servers down the street.

Building on an Already Strict Phone Policy

Cherry Hill’s approach to student technology did not start with artificial intelligence. The district has restricted wireless device use during class time since 2024, well ahead of the statewide requirement, and is now preparing to implement New Jersey’s new bell to bell cell phone law, which requires districts statewide to prohibit non-academic use of personal internet enabled devices throughout the entire school day beginning with the 2026 to 2027 academic year. With that stricter phone policy already locked in for September, district administration has signaled it intends to go further, developing a dedicated AI framework that would sit alongside the phone rules rather than get folded into them.

That framework is expected to be presented by the district’s assistant superintendent of curriculum and would establish specific expectations for how students are allowed to use generative AI tools as part of their coursework. The effort builds on groundwork the district had already begun laying, having previously discussed a district level generative AI policy at the board level covering acceptable use in the classroom. Officials have described the goal as giving teachers flexibility to incorporate AI tools where they add real instructional value, while maintaining clear boundaries for students and keeping parents informed about how the technology factors into their children’s coursework.

A Very Different Stance on AI’s Physical Footprint

While the school district works through how AI should be used inside its classrooms, Cherry Hill’s township government has taken a considerably harder line on where the physical infrastructure behind that same technology is allowed to exist. The township council voted unanimously in late July to amend its zoning ordinance and formally prohibit large scale data centers, the massive server farms that power AI training and cloud computing, from operating anywhere within Cherry Hill’s borders. The ordinance draws a specific distinction between the newly banned large scale facilities and the smaller server rooms already used by individual businesses for routine file storage, which remain fully permitted.

Cherry Hill Mayor David Fleisher said after the vote that the township had no interest in serving as a testing ground for a technology whose infrastructure demands are still not fully understood, arguing that getting ahead of the issue now was preferable to reacting to a problem after it had already taken root. Christopher Dochney, a certified city planner who worked with the township on the ordinance, said the move aligns directly with goals already written into Cherry Hill’s master plan, including preserving the township’s character as a garden suburb, protecting natural resources, and maintaining an attractive, desirable community, arguing that large scale data centers, whatever their economic promise, run directly counter to those priorities given how much land, water, and energy the facilities typically consume relative to the number of permanent jobs they create.

Part of a Broader Statewide Reckoning

Cherry Hill’s data center ban did not happen in isolation. The township joins a growing list of New Jersey municipalities, including Millville, East Greenwich, Warren Township, and others, that have moved to restrict or fully ban large scale data center development over the past year, as residents across the state have raised concerns about the strain the facilities place on local electric grids and water systems. Governor Mikie Sherrill’s administration has stopped short of endorsing a statewide moratorium, instead announcing a broader plan aimed at holding data center operators more accountable for their energy and water use while still allowing New Jersey to compete for AI related investment, a middle path that has left the door open for individual towns like Cherry Hill to set their own, often stricter, local rules in the meantime.

Taken together, the two Cherry Hill decisions reflect a community trying to draw a careful line around artificial intelligence rather than rejecting or embracing the technology wholesale. Inside its schools, the district is working to define responsible, supervised use of AI as a learning tool. Outside them, the township has decided the industrial scale infrastructure that makes those same tools possible has no place within its borders. Whether that distinction holds up as AI continues to reshape both classrooms and the broader economy is likely to remain an open question for Cherry Hill, and for the growing number of New Jersey towns watching how it plays out.