That's an excellent question, @amandataintor ...and your suggested work-around is the only way I can think of off-hand. And as you may already know, the benefit to making it an ungraded assignment is that it will still appear on the SYLLABUS page, but not in the Gradebook.
The only OTHER work-around is by using Modules. If you do, you can place the page in a Module, but then set the module to unlock on a specific date/time, as covered here: How do I lock a Module? And frankly, even if you don't usually use Modules, if you place a page within a locked Module, even if the student clicks on the PAGES menu item and then the VIEW ALL PAGES button, the page that is within a locked module will not be able to be read by the student. (Though they will still see the title of page.)
