LIKE several Long Island school districts, Glen Cove is considering a plan that would eliminate traditional neighborhood kindergarten-to-sixth-grade schools in favor of primary and intermediate schools organized by grades.

Under the concept, a modification of the Princeton Plan of the 1960's, younger students are grouped in a building for up to the second or third grades and older students go to other schools.

Advocates of the plan say it is more logical than neighborhood schools, creates a special atmosphere for children who are close in age and makes better use of staffs, materials and supplies.

Opponents argue that the plan would force too much moving from school to school, that it would separate siblings and that it sacrifices the community feelings of neighborhood schools. Switches at 2d or 4th Grades

A meeting on the alternatives will be held tomorrow in Glen Cove, and the School Board is scheduled to vote on the plan on March 16.

One alternative would close an elementary school and divide the children in the kindergarten through the fourth grade among the four remaining schools.

The second plan, which many administrators and much of the community support as the most economically and educationally sound, would pair the four remaining schools. The oldest school, Coles, would close, and two schools would be for kindergarten through second grade, and the other two would be for the third and fourth grades.

"We weren't interested in the Princeton Plan, because there would be too much jumping from school to school," Superintendent Charles J. Murphy said. "Under the paired plan schools are grouped for efficiency, and youngsters would only be in four schools by the time they graduate." 'We Need the Money'

The district estimates that it would save more than $500,000 a year, he said, even after adding two buses.

Despite parents' concerns over larger classes and additional busing, Dr. Murphy said, "This is the first school closing in Glen Cove in 20 years, and naturally change is upsetting to the community."

The president of the Nassau County Council of Superintendents, Dr. Bert Nelson of Hewlett-Woodmere, said the Glen Cove proposal was "a very creative approach to the problem many school districts are facing." It is a compromise between the Princeton Plan and the neighborhood-schools concept, he said, forming neighborhood sister schools. First for Racial Balance

Since the late 60's, when enrollments began to decline, districts have been reorganizing. Districts had considered the Princeton Plan primarily as a way to achieve racial balance among schools, but, Dr. Nelson said, "now every school district has experienced severe cutbacks in state aid, and all are looking for every way possible to maximize their resources."

Locust Valley has had such a program for more than 10 years, not as a result of budget cuts, but for educational reasons, said Superintendent Matthew J. DiRisio. The district covers five towns, but a majority of children are from Locust Valley and Bayville. The four elementary schools have been paired, with programs for kindergarten to second grade and then for the third through sixth grades.

"We have found this a preferable way to group children," Dr. DiRisio said. "Putting the primary grades in a building together gives them a family feeling, and by the time they move to the intermediate school they have established an identity."

The grouping also benefits teachers, he said, in that it encourages sharing, collaborative planning and team teaching. Regrouping in Commack

In Suffolk County the larger Commack school district regrouped its elementary schools several years ago, and it merged its two high schools to one and its two junior highs to one middle school.

The impetus was both financial and to accommodate the changing population, said an assistant superintendent, Robert Davis. Although secondary enrollment was declining, elementary-school levels were stable or increasing, he said.

Several districts are studying regrouping, Mr. Davis said, and several have written to and visited Commack, which has kindergarten-to-second-grade and third-to-fifth-grade groups.

Some districts chose other strategies. Last year Half Hollow Hills closed one elementary school and one junior high school. Before the change, elementary schools had students from kindergarten through the sixth grade, junior high was for the seventh to ninth grades, and the two high schools had the 10th to 12th grades.

In September the sixth grade was moved from the elementary schools, leaving six elementary schools for kindergarten through fifth grade. Children from the closed Sunquam elementary school went to the two closest elementary schools. The sixth to eighth grades were divided between the two middle schools, and the 9th to 12th grades attend the two high schools.

Superintendent Kevin Maguire said, "We knew for several years that reductions in state aid were dictating changes and we would have to reorganize." The community resisted the closings, but the disruption was minimal, he said.

Although many districts have been pleased with primary and intermediate groupings, Half Hollow Hills did not consider that because it wanted neighborhood schools, Mr. Maguire said.

In Syosset administrators have also chosen to retain neighborhood elementary schools, even as they will close one of their seven elementary schools for two or three years as an adjacent landfill is capped. A committee will determine how to distribute the students in South Grove elementary school, said Superintendent Carole Hankin. The children will be bused to other schools and return to South Grove when the capping is completed, she said. 'We Like It This Way'

Dr. Hankin said the district did not want a plan to close South Grove permanently and reorganize the remaining schools. "In Syosset," she said, "we like it this way and think it's working. Test scores have remained extremely high, and we see no reason to reorganize."

In contrast, Long Beach has had several reorganizations in the 20 years since neighborhood schools were eliminated in favor of a Princeton Plan, largely to achieve racial balance. After a few years the Princeton Plan was replaced by the Parental Option Plan, in which elementary schools were reorganized, each with different teaching philosophies and strategies. Parents throughout the district selected the schools that they wanted for their children.

Several years ago the district was again reorganized, with the four elementary schools modified to use comparable teaching methods and philosophies, said Superintendent Elliott Landon. The current system, intradistrict school choice, is still a plan of parents' choice and is believed to be the only one on the Island, Dr. Landon said. Parents most often select the school for their children by proximity to their home or if it offers a special program.

"For example," Dr. Landon said, "one elementary school by happenstance has a dual-language program, which might appeal to some parents, in that it enables their children to become fluent in two languages." To Maintain Racial Balances

Parents select a school the year before kindergarten. If they do not express a preference, administrators assign the children in an effort to maintain racial balances.

Districts are looking at alternatives like consolidating or sharing services or even consolidating two districts into one.

In East Rockaway, after a proposal to merge with Lynbrook was rejected, administrators looked at sending 480 students in the 7th through 12th grade to Lynbrook and paying tuition. Committees are being formed in both communities to study the the plan and a decision is expected by the fall, said the East Rockaway Superintendent, Dr. Robert Parry. If the plan is approved, he added, East Rockaway would examine reorganizing its elementary schools.

Two neighborhood schools for kindergarten through sixth grade could be converted to primary and intermediate groupings, Dr. Parry said, to make better use of the three buildings in the district.