This is so difficult for teachers at the start of the school year as they import their bulletin board and then CAN NOT SEE IT until the first day of school.  The only work around is to change all the publish dates to the current data a very tedious and time consuming task if they have imported a lot of items.  This confuses my teachers at the start of the year and makes setting up their webpages frustrating.  I hope you will consider adding a publish date when you import.  Thanks!