Issue with Django --> Apache WSGI deployment

Question

I have a django app running in VS Code 1.86.2 on a Debian 12 machine using Python 3.11.2. I'm working on a test deployment to Apache 2.4.57 and mod_wsgi 4.9.4. I've been working through docs from Apache and Django.

At this point I am able to load html documents from the deployed site, but the Django template tags are not being processed. For example I see the below text in the browser.

    {% extends "base.html" %} {% block title %}my app{% endblock %} {% block content %} {% csrf_token %}
    Record Lookup
    Search Key:
    {% endblock %} 

Excerpt from apache2.conf: 
Listen 9876 <VirtualHost *:9876> 
DocumentRoot "/var/www/proj1_1/app_1/templates" 
ServerName www.trsws3.com </VirtualHost> 
WSGIScriptAlias /test_site/ /var/www/app1/app1/wsgi.py 
WSGIPythonPath /var/www/proj_1/app1 
<Directory /var/www/proj_1/app1> 
<Files wsgi.py> Require all granted </Files> </Directory> 

I'm new to the Django and Apache world so hoping for some guidance on where to start diagnosing this issue.