changing text input to select in wordpress using jQuery

I am using a WordPress module abase to get some data from database and send them to a form. The problem is, that abase form does not allow to use select input. Because of that I am trying to convert text input to a select. I created function toSelect, to which I pass id of element and list of options (for testing I put id of element to function definition).

function toSelect(itemid,valuelist) {
    var out = '';
    out += '<select id="bus311mtd_2_status" style="width:50px;">';
    for (i=0; i < valuelist.length; i++) {
        out += '<option value="'+valuelist[i]+'">'+valuelist[i]+'</option>';
    }
    out += '</select>';
    alert(out);
    $("#bus311mtd_2_status").replaceWith(out);
    //$("#bus311mtd_2_status").replaceWith('<input type="text" value="zamontowane">');
}

alert(out) gives nice select input code, but $("#bus311mtd_2_status").replaceWith(out) does not work.

Even something like: $("#bus311mtd_2_status").replaceWith('<input type="text" value="zamontowane">') doesn't work.

Element with id bus311mtd_2_status for sure exists (i.e. changing its value using document.getElementById() works fine)

Maybe jQuery doesn't work?