Вернуть html с сервера и распознать как json

<form action="#" method="POST" class="navbar-search pull-right" id="searchValid"> 
  <input type="text" id="search" name="search" class="search-query" placeholder="Поиск.."> 
  <select name="nubexSelect" id="nubexSelect" size="1"> 
    <option value="1">Имя</option> 
    <option value="2">Фамилия</option> 
    <option value="3">E-Mail</option> 
    <option value="4">Дата регистрации</option> 
  </select> 
  <input type="submit" id="sbm" name="sbm" value="Найти"> 
</form>

$('#searchValid').ajaxForm({ 
	url: '/admin/users/search/search', 
	dataType: 'text', 
	success: function(data) { 
		console.log(data); 
		data = $.parseJSON(data); 
		switch(data.status) { 
			case 'error': 
				$.jGrowl(data.error, { sticky: !1, position: "top-right", theme: "bg-red" }); 
				$('input[type=sbm]').prop('disabled', false); 
				break; 
			case 'success': 
				$.jGrowl(data.success, { sticky: !1, position: "top-right", theme: "bg-green" }); 
				setTimeout("reload()", 1000); 
				break; 
		} 
	}, 
	beforeSubmit: function(arr, $form, options) { 
		$('input[type=sbm]').prop('disabled', true); 
	} 
});

class searchController extends Controller { 
	private $limit = 20; 
	public function search($page = 1) { 
		$this->document->setActiveSection('admin'); 
		$this->document->setActiveItem('users'); 
		 
		if(!$this->user->isLogged()) { 
			$this->session->data['error'] = "Вы не авторизированы!"; 
			$this->response->redirect($this->config->url . 'account/login'); 
		} 
		if($this->user->getAccessLevel() < 2) { 
			$this->session->data['error'] = "У вас нет доступа к данному разделу!"; 
			$this->response->redirect($this->config->url); 
		} 
		 
		$this->load->library('pagination'); 
		$this->load->model('users'); 
		 
		$options = array( 
			'start' => ($page - 1) * $this->limit, 
			'limit' => $this->limit 
		); 
		 
		$total = $this->usersModel->getTotalUsers(); 
		 
		if($this->request->server['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') { 
			$search = @$this->request->post['search']; 
			 
			$returnArray = array();  
			$row = 0;  
			$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_firstname LIKE '%ара%'");// %ара% — поставил пока просто для теста 
			while($result = mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) {  
				$returnArray[$row] = $result;  
				$row++;  
			} 
			$users = $returnArray; 
		} 
		 
		$paginationLib = new paginationLibrary(); 
		 
		$paginationLib->total = $total; 
		$paginationLib->page = $page; 
		$paginationLib->limit = $this->limit; 
		$paginationLib->url = $this->config->url . 'adminls/users/search/search/{page}'; 
		 
		$pagination = $paginationLib->render(); 
		 
		$this->data['users'] = $users; 
		$this->data['status'] = $status; 
		$this->data['pagination'] = $pagination; 
		 
		$this->getChild(array('common/header', 'common/footer')); 
		//return $this->load->view('admin/users/index', $this->data); 
		//return json_encode($this->data); 
	} 
}

//return $this->load->view('admin/users/index', $this->data); 
//return json_encode($this->data);