Answer 1

Check out this

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{{ STATIC_URL }}css/style.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="{{ STATIC_URL }}js/jquery-1.8.3.min.js"></script>

Go through the documentation once again https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/static-files/

Answer 2

You could try to add "type='text/css'" after the rel-attribute, but I don't think it's necessary though (worth a try I guess). Also, this might be a stupid question from me, but have you written any styles in your CSS-file that you know for certain will work? If I want to test if CSS is working, I always change the color of something obvious, like the background, just to see if the CSS is working or not. I guess you could also try restarting the server. Good luck!